from Swimming Lessons: Staying afloat in our flooded future Because eventually the river rises here. It overflows to claim it all and to show us what we lost, like it always had. —Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous A FRIEND ONCE TOLD ME about the experience, both hilarious and heartbreaking, of watching her son realize that, where there are buildings now, there once were plants. “Were there plants where our house is?” he asked, wide-eyed, a little horrified.