041824c

https://www.theclergyletterproject.org/Resources/apr2024newsletter.html#2

The Clergy Letter Project newsletter

#science #religion #climatechange #evolution

021521c

 

ancient ships

brought us from the home world

they're pitted, some tumbled

we don't need them now

we've learned to fly

010120c

 

This Episode in the Original Series Was Never Released


The Enterprise whips around the sun
having not quite sussed the English of the shot
comes out, not in 1964
but in 540 million BC
the away team beams down
to what will one day be New York City
they look around
they gasp, keel over, croak
because everything is barren dirt
far as the eye can see?
no, because there's no oxygen
not so you'd notice
no land plants yet
to pump it out

122920

 

if kangaroos

were marine they'd out-shark sharks

Aussie facts*

Sydney beaches closed

one more drowning incident 

*Look it up.

102920c

 

The Holiday Table

The pièce de résistance
roast beast
well not really roast beast
the beasts were extinct long since
well not really extinct
but the two zoo specimens were not available 

Sculpted tofu resembled the beast
in every particular
forelimbs folded demurely beneath
a huge fat torso
sagging neck
spheroidal head
four pairs of tusks
not strictly accurate
the beast didn't have four pairs
no tusks at all really
but the children loved them so
and after what they did to the planet
they deserved to be mocked
as well as eated

102720d

 

We did not begin our existence as food creatures manufactured by primitive autochthons that had not even learned to master space or time! Could we?

102220c

 

almost every beast

is long gone

the moon still shines down

 

 

101420c

 
Never should have turned the de-evolution ray on the chicken. It had worked so well on the dog — cutest little thing you ever saw! But the chicken, yeah. First of all, nothing 40 feet tall is going to fit in the lab. So there's the damage, and I was only renting the place. It took off running, guess it was hungry. How am I going to pay for the cows? Not to mention when people start to wonder what became of Farmer Brown. So I've packed up and I'm hitting the road, pulling the machine behind me in a trailer. It just needs a little more testing and I know I can make it perfect.

091520c

 

The Human Legacy

 

hills with rounded corners

steaming toxic pits of sludge

 here and there a remnant

of beauty lovingly curated

by the Pack

090720d

 

Change Can Be Good

The Robinsons stepped from their time machine. A pine forest greeted them: birds twittered, insects buzzed, a cool breeze blew pleasantly. Nothing moved.

“We can build a home here,” Father declared, “Earth has finally recovered.”

“Where's Will?” Mother asked worriedly.

“Mom! Dad!” Will ran into the clearing. “We have to go!”

“Why son? Listen: there are bees again!”

The buzzing got much louder. Soon, a bee squeezed into the clearing.

 

082220c

 

Limeaid: in defense of citrus! 

almost any citrus species

will breed with any other

which brings us navel limes

with little limes inside 'em

081620b

 

ring species

human colonies slowly

fill the Kuiper Belt 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt

051220c

Those birds that made a living by picking parasites off of sauropods vanished without a trace when the big guys bought it. They couldn't wait for rhinos to evolve and take the giants' place.

042920c

Lazarus bugs
trilobites acrawl miles down
in the Mariana

041820

Not To Be Found

many-colored towers,

open to the rain and sky,

the blast-scarred field,

mantled by flower-studded runners.

we were gone.

unwinking stars,

and this ruddy world,

dreamed we had never been.

flower stalks nodded, blooms

moving against the breeze;

ripe seeds glinted

from freshly turned earth.

a few millennia,

an augenblick,

forest of pink, crimson, purple,

not a drop of DNA.

041620c

new people
grow organs like weeds
my roommate's spare head

041620b

trumpet vines
strangle purple irises
toot their own horns

040820d

when we're gone
how long will the ducks last
Forest Lake

031820c

mind control
made it easy to manipulate elections
but the puppetmasters
chose their candidate poorly
after the virus
and the war
they were out of hosts
oops

031520e

Mars Colony 1 Under Attack

Nobody knew

What happened to the mice,

Evolved to survive, people say,

Like that explains it.

Grandpa was working in red dome

When it happened,

Bloody scrap of suit,

all Grandma got back;

She was never the same since.

Don't know who thought of putting out the moss,

The tardigrades come for the moss;

You don't see them,

Wouldn't want to,

with their sucking, tooth-ringed mouths,

And so many bulbous, jiggly legs.

They deal with te mice though,

Never bother anything else,

Unless...you forget the moss.