033119b

Weren't we surprised
the cave we made our home
built our cities in
gastrointestinal tract of a giant
not quite dead after all


we were not edible, as it turned out
it was a wild ride
but we emerged intact
really needing showers

033119

Dolomite (gray and white); this rock was once very porous, but all the pore space has been filled with calcite cement (stained pink with Alizarin red S), note partial replacement of rhombic dolomite crystals with calcite; dolostone of Knox Group, Mississippi, thin-section photomicrograph.

033019d

The Ghost Eater

The Professor's machine did exactly as promised,

hoovering up ghosts quicker than you could say Jack Rob

but he never did explain what happened to them

before he vanished, machine & all,

in full view of 1,026 citizens of Wichita, Kansas.

Ideas about the captured spectres abounded:

converted to energy and used to heat the Prof.'s home,

squeezed into a superdense ball of trans-uranics,

beamed into outer space,

sent back to the Cambrian,

when Earth was young,

and the landscape dry as dust.

That one was right.

Not much to do in a desert so barren

the sand gets lonely,

Joe, and Bill, Eileen, baby “X”, and all, they

floated around making conversation:

morning Zebu, good to see you Phyl,

day after tiresome day as a disembodied spirit,

unable to interact with matter

no one to frighten except Petra,

and she was only pretending,

being a wight herself.

“Just let me die!” the only joke,

& after 14,000 years it wasn't funny any more.

So they schemed to haunt the Professor,

haunt him somethin' fierce

from the very moment of his birth.

But you know what?

The ghosts dissipated one by one,

not a one even made it

to the conquest of land,

they changed, somehow, learned to let go,

popped like soap bubbles, unobserved.

033019c

In the last week or so, I have sold a chapbook manuscript and three poems to periodicals. I have almost cleared out my inbox again, and am still reading for the September issue of Dreams and Nightmares. It is about time for me to start laying out the May issue. Meanwhile, spring is here, and it is fun to spend time outside again, even for someone who is usually cold.

033019b

Felix came home to find
mice building some sort of contraption
on the dining room table
power supply and other components
scavenged from appliances
all over the house
"what the hell" he said
then, the mouse with the big head
clicked the remote

black shadow
etched into the wall
power out
in the whole town

mice rule

033019

Baroque dolomite growing into void within dolostone of the Knox Group, Mississippi, thin-section photomicrograph.

032919c

Ostracodes, some articulated and filled with calcite cement, in lines of the Knox Group, Mississippi. Thin-section photomicrograph.

032919b

under the bed
gurgle the ripening
one will provide

032919

solid geometry

the cubes we could handle
even the pyramids
but the floating dodecahedra
filled with acid jelly
overwhelmed our brave troops

032819b

Dolomite (white and gray) with a small void lined with dead oil (bitumen; black) and filled with calcite cement, stained pink with Alizarin red S. Cambrian-Ordovician Knox Group, Maben Field, Mississippi. Thin-section photomicrograph.

032819

infected ant
dies after climbing a tree
spores to the wind

032719d

This is a link to an hour-long television show called "Speaking Evolution." The show focuses on problems and solutions with regard to teaching evolution. It features voices of many evolutionary scientists explaining in clear terms what it's all about.

https://video.aptv.org/video/speaking-evolution-fuxnro/

032719c

thorny dewberries
snake through the garden,
their white flowers promising
sweet plump fruit,
even as they strangle
everything you planted

032719b

Skeletal packstone dominated by bryozoans and crinoids, matrix partially dolomitized, fossils partially silicified, Mississippian Bangor Limestone, Alabama, thin-section photomicrograph.

032719

the brass gears of God
turn exceeding slowly
sand of souls

032619e

Charles Addams, the master.

032619d

A globe of nested Flatlands
never in contact with one another
never aware that the others exist
till one day, flat scientists
find a way to travel between
the concentric dimensions
the Russian-doll worlds

at first
the wonder of it all
billions more places to explore
trillions more people to meet
than anyone had ever imagined
inevitably though
war broke out
started small
some kind of border dispute
or religious disagreement
burned ultimately
through all the worlds

when the 3D folk
stumbled upon this wonder
they found nothing but
tons and tons
of charred paper
adorned with peculiar shapes
that never moved

032619c

032619b

032619

invaders
replaced all the cats
too late they realized
the limits of paws

032519c

The surf crawled away
from sky-shattered ruins,
small things moved within,
glittering rainbows of flesh.

The gulls found them good.

032519b

Gigantic sinkhole in the woods of Shelby County Alabama.

032519

Calcite (bright red) and partially dolomitized limestone (dark red with light-colored specks of dolomite), partially silicified (very bright white and gray areas), Mississippian Bangor Limestone, Haletown Tennessee, thin-section photomicrograph.

032419c

virus corrupted
the last copy of Grandma
still have her ashes

032419b

Earthings!
Here, Xyfzx, hold ma ploosti

032419

Cross-laminated oolitic dolomitized grainstone, Jurassic, Smackover Formation, porous oil reservoir, North Choctaw Ridge Field, Alabama, five-centavo piece for scale.

032319c

I have a blank-verse sonnet at polutexni.com

I recently sold 5 short poems to the first issue of Random Planets.

Spring's in full swing in Alabama.

And, this year's Rhysling Anthology is almost done.

032319b

Social Dinosaurs

they watch us

to you or me, a crow

is a crow, but they know where you live

they know all

about you, and your trash

and how you treat your corvid neighbors

in quiet

nest speech they talk of love

but public caws are all about you

and your cat

they see you feeding her

you are on the list and all crows know

in Jonesville

and over to Waycross

in Willow Valley you're known on sight

your lights went

out in a blaze of sparks

shorted by feathered suicide squad

screwdriver

near the opened fuse box

crow ninjas had to pick toolbox lock

nestlings watch

they remember naughty

and nice, they keep _my_ shrubs beetle free

caw!!

If you like this::poem, why not check out the collection in which it was published,, Metastable Systems:


https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/760901

032319

Limestone (calcite, stained red with alizarin red S), partially replaced by dolomite (white and gray), which has in turn been partially replaced by calcite, indicated by the worm-eaten outlines of the dolomite crystals. Thin-section photomicrograph. Jurassic Smackover Formation, West Appleton Field, Alabama.

032219b

inside the rock
trails of ancient footprints
paths cross

032219

close to the red sun
plan to make the Guinness
by frying an egg

032119c

Tidal deposit in Tombigbee Sand Member of Eutaw Formation, H&R Point, Montgomery Alabama.

032119b

cold wind from the north
freezing nitrogen from the sky
helium goes walking

032119

Prof. Gabriela Mangano is speaking tonight about what trace fossils can teach us about macroevolution, North Lawn Hall, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, 7:30 PM, free and open to the public. She is a great speaker and if you can go to this talk you should not miss it.

http://evolution.ua.edu/

032019d

Somehow missed
our target star
the rest are gone
the freezers empty
I am writing on the walls
trying to explain
human history
to any who might find this
blunt metal pill
hurtling through nothing
before the heat death of the universe

032019c

Sunset, Indian Ocean.

032019b

Base camp, Drum Mountains, Utah.

032019

these oozing critters
and their soft clay buildings
no match for our boys

031919d

Dolomite crystals (white and gray) that have replaced a pre-existing limestone fabric. Calcite cement crystals (red) have filled in all the open spaces left by the dolomite, and partially dissolved some of the dolomite crystals. Jurassic Smackover Formation, Alabama, thin-section photomicrograph.

031919c

no rust
on this airless world
billion-year-old tools

031919b

cold snap the gentle nitrogen snow fall

031919

Partially dolomitized ooid grainstone. Some ooid laminae, and some cement generations, are still calcite. Bright white objects are quartz sand particles. Jurassic Smackover Formation, Alabama, thin-section photomicrograph, stained with Alizarin Red S.

031819c

Partially dolomitized limestone. Calcite is red, dolomite gray, open space light blue and white. Large spheres are ooids (made by crystallization in agitated warm water); small ones pellets (probably made by worms). Thin-section photomicrograph, Jurassic Smackover Formation, Alabama.

031819b

his hand in her blouse

when her dad fired the first shot

viral video

031819

Intraclast, thinly coated and consisting of three orids, therefore technically a compound ooid, in mixed-particle grainstone, Jurassic Smackover Formation, subsurface of south Alabama, thin-section photomicrograph.

031719c

the last frog on Earth
floats belly up in the creek
hey man nice shot

031719b

the night sky

still no man in this moon

no constellations

031719

Ooid grainstone, a high-energy tropical shallow-water sand in which interparticle pores have been entirely filled with cement. Jurassic Smackover Formation, subsurface of South Alabama, thin-section photomicrograph, stained with Alizarin Red S, which stains calcite pink, blue areas are open pores filled with blue epoxy in this thin section preparation.

031619b

tracing the probe
to its planetary source
see the ants scurry

031619

Grainstone containing numerous fossil fragments, but also a recycled ooid (center), and an intraclast, which itself contains an ooid (right). This rock includes quite a bit of material recycled from nearby pre-existing rocks. Mississippian, Bangor Limestone, Alabama, thin section photomicrograph.

031519b

plastic shards
and earthworks in the grass
lost colony

031519

Mississippian fossil debris, including a possible strange cut through a gastropod (lower left) as well as bryozoan and echinoderm fragments. Fossil packstone, Bangor Limestone, Alabama. Thin section photomicrograph.

031419b

peeling the petals
to see if plant girl loves me
diplomatic incident

031419

Fossil grainstone, which buried a carbonate mound. Mixture of echinoderm and bryozoan fossils, with other, less common, elements. Mississippian Bangor Limestone, Alabama. Thin section photomicrograph.

031319c

International
Journal of Blah Blah Blah
we publish good

031319b

with time
galaxies come into view
long-dead empires

031319

Skeletal grainstone, Bangor Limestone, Mississippian, Alabama. Thin-section photomicrograph.

031219b

more rain more mud
traces of my wheels
everywhere I go

031219

Crinoid columnal (center of image) in partially dolomitized skeletal packstone, Bangor Limestone, Mississippian, Alabama. Thin-section photomicrograph stained with Alizarin Red S, which stains calcite pink.

031119c

rain boots by the door
the next 40 days and nights
are looking grim

031119b

Fragment of rugose coral embedded in dolomitized lime-mud matrix. Bangor Limestone, Mississippian, Alabama. Thin section photomicrograph stained with Alizarin Red S, which stains calcite pink.

031119

quadriplegia

what you don't feel kills you

chasms in your flesh

031019b

What Am I

1. This is a list poem.
2. Each line is numbered.
3. There's no rhyme or rhythm.
4. Incomplete sentences.
5. I am self-referential.
6. The end.
7. Not really.
8. The end for real.
9. Still no.

The End

031019

The Language of Body




 
Your smell,
Your hair,
The black hole of you,
Sucking me away from science.
Just pheromones, I know,
But they speak the language of body,
That tongue which,
Invented by our vertebrate ancestors,
Brings man and woman together.
I am crashing
On the reef of your hips,
The up-curved nose of you,
The studious lashes of your eyes.
My fossils call with dusty voices,
Write us into story, they say,
Publish the tales of our evolution,
But you are already written
On my hands;
You are the generation
Of light.



If you like this::poem, why not check out the collection in which it was published,, Metastable Systems:




https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/760901

030919b

I have responded to every submission to Dreams and Nightmares, as of today. The May issue is full, but I am reading for the September issue (#113), so please send me your poems. I am looking for speculative poetry, broadly construed, and specifically open to all kinds of writers. I prefer free verse to rhyming poetry, but if the latter is done well, then I want to see it.

Print back issues are $5; PDF back issues are $1. You can get every single past and future issue for $90. (Only a few print back issues are still available, but I have PDFs of almost every single one.) Order via PayPal at this email address: jopnquog@gmail.com.

Here are a few covers.

030919

Agent 

I used to sell holidays
in other worlds.
Some folks didn't come back
for whatever reason:
fell in love
eaten
kidnapped
imprisoned
better job
relief from allergies
but that's not why they shut me down,
Somebody brought back
a teensy little bug,
and ok, it did kill trillions,
and eradicated humans on 1,000 worlds.
But come on!
Who hasn't done that?!



If you like this poem, check out my recent collection, Metastable Systems.
 
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/760901  

030819d

toss the scraps

overboard for the kraken

sucker!

assu

030819c

Fenestrate bryozoan in dolomitic limestone, carbonate mound, Bangor Limestone, Mississippian, Alabama. Thin-section photomicrograph stayed with Alizarin red S.

030819b

ants wage total war
on the kitchen floor
scorched earth policy

030819

fifth column figures don’t add up

030719e

3 poems by me in Feb. Scifaikuest online, including Editor's Choice https://www.albanlakepublishing.com/scifaikuest-online

020719d

Universal Tool


Screwdriver,
all-size wrench,
drill and auger,
air pump and generator,
welding torch and circular saw,
and of course,
a thermonuclear device:
single use

030719c

wheelchair tires
squeal all down the hall
after rain

030719b

Coastal Alabama after Tropical Storm Isidore

Great Blue Heron, disturbed by the storm, hanging out on a public beach.

 Unusual windrow consisting entirely of shrimp fecal pellets, coating the beach after the storm.

Last house on Dauphin Island, precariously perched at the high tide line, after the storm.

030719

Raising Alabama's gas tax 10 cents per gallon to repair roads and bridges is wrong-headed and classist. It will punish working poor people, many of whom will no longer be able to put gas in their cars. Kay Ivey needs to find a way to fix the state's problems without, once again, taking from the poor what they need to live. This naked attempt to make the poor poorer is disgusting.

030619b

Three views of rocks from miles below the surface of the earth.

Anhydrite replacing limestone and filling fracture in Smackover Formation, south Alabama. Thin section photomicrograph. Image about 1 mm across.

Light-colored dolomite, which partially replaced red-stained limestone, is being in turn replaced by limestone. Smackover Formation, south Alabama. Thin section photomicrograph. Image about 1 mm across.

Wormy-looking sponge in the upper part of image, Smackover Formation, south Alabama Slabbed and polished core. Core 4 inches wide.

030619

How can there be global warming when it's so cold in the middle of winter?

How can there be calm when I hear the wind whistling in one ear and out the other?

030519e

Every year, we take teachers on a one-day paleontology field workshop in western Alabama. This is the kind of stuff they find:

Participants don't just find fossils, they study them. This year, we will be learning about how to use fossils to correlate rock layers. Of course, if past expeditions are anything to go by, we also could find pterosaurs, mosasaurs, sea turtles, and lots of other things.

To learn more or sign up, go to this website and scroll down:

https://www.gsa.state.al.us/

030519d

Thin section of a fossil snail. Bangor Limestone, Mississippian, Lawrence County, Alabama.

030519c

walking on the sun cinder circled by dead worlds

030519b

The End Of An Era

And as the orange sun sinks slowly into the swamp, we're suffocated by the smell of 10,000 rendering cheeseburgers, to the melodious chants of "Fake news!"

030519

Collapse breccia, Permian evaporites, El Capitan, New Mexico.