Geological Punctuations              Joachim Frank

(first appeared in Short, Fast and Deadly, now defunct)

 

Look, this has been long

in the making:

Pre-Cambrian — Zirconium

(that comma in the story

of the earth), then Cambrian

– Zirconium – Devonian

— Zirconium – Cenozoic.

What’s next?

Giraffes, today’s dinosaurs

walk on asphalt

(Did you know their eyelashes

are strong enough

to mince meat?);

they lower their curious necks, to inspect

those glistening chicks we call Landrovers

in Hluhluweh, in Safariland.

But still, when the water finally disappears:

Zirconium. Silencium.

.

.