Thursday, March 7, 2013

77000-Year-Old Bedding Found


[Prof. Christopher Miller sampling sediments. (Credit: Prof. Lyn Wadley, Science Daily)]

This is where they
Laid their heads.
They fell asleep.

We found their beds.
Between lines three
And four is a space,
Punctuation indicating
A pause of
Seventy-seven thousand
Years --amnestic mornings,

Nestled in settled stone
Waking alone, eager,
In love or sad, in
Their beds where they
Dreamed, worried,
Trysted, cried, laughed,
Whispered, petrified.

Here on prehistoric
Beds, this is where
They laid their heads.

5 comments:

  1. I've been reading you back and forth and forth and back. With that, I can only conclude I love the poemy that is you! Especially during my very first Geo. read, "77000-Year-Old Bedding Found." It did wonderful things to my head! Pausing me, as if to...to...THINK! Yes, think--think before I leap. And then I leapt: If this discovery did indeed prove to be the bedding of the original Prinsessen paa Ærten (<--cLiCkY cLiCkY)--which it very well could be because, come on, why not?--the next stanza would end in a period of fossilized "green" that, upon close inspection, would most certainly be identified as petrified one of these! (<--cLiCkY cLiCkY again)

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  2. Most kind, Sparkle. Idea for poem came from a back number --Dec. 8, 2011 —- of Science Daily's website.

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  3. "The oldest evidence for bedding at the site is particularly well-preserved, and consists of a layer of fossilized sedge stems and leaves, overlain by a tissue-paper-thin layer of leaves, identified by botanist Marion Bamford as belonging to Cryptocarya woodii, or River Wild-quince," read SparkleFarkel overtah Science Daily. Hm. First the prehistoric guys came up with fire, then the wheel, then bedding, and then, last but certainly not least, SALAD!?!? Cool article, but your poem is still waaay cooler!

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