042821c

 

such a small thing

the wound spirals out

rotting as it goes

042821

 

In the hospital again! This time because of a brown recluse bite. Nasty things. At least this time I slept a couple of hours. So I am getting behind on everything. All but reading. That's one Ace double I am really glad I didn't pay for! The Herod Men is about an assassin who combats overpopulation and environmental degradation with targeted killings. Oy veh! 

Home is just a mile away, and so very frustratingly far.

Update: out of surgery and doing well, but I still don't know when they will let me out. One of my first priorities when they do is to get Dreams and Nightmares 118 to the printer!

012021

 

The Party got behind Anansi in 2028, and they would've recaptured the presidency too, if he hadn't sucked dry one too many meddling kids.

080819d

The Encyclopedia of Alabama includes about two dozen short articles about the geology of the state. Including this one, about the Steven C Minkin Paleozoic Footprint site, in Walker County. This site is one of the best in the world for its abundance and diversity of trace fossils:

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1371

The encyclopedia is written for the general public.

Here are photographs of some of the fantastically preserved trace fossils found at the site:

 Insect jumping traces.

Horseshoe crab trackway.

Two crossing millipede trackways.

 Amphibian trackway.

Reptile trackway.

Giant amphibian footprint next to a small trackway of a different amphibian.

 Fish fin trails.

Insect wing impressions.

Trigonotarbid, an ancient spider relative.

A new book about these exciting Pennsylvanian trace fossils describes their discovery, their makers, and the environment in which they lived:

https://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Stone-Fossil-Coal-Age-Tetrapods/dp/0817358447/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me=

073119

I knew there'd be tarantulas
in that box I stole
but nine!
how will I feed them?
the supply of little sisters
will soon be exhausted
and they're too small
for adults



Based on a news story on NPR this morning.

050319

Mother
fills a home with spiders
a snug nest
secure from enemies
hatchlings feed
on their lovely
arachnid food
when it's gone
it'll be time
to stretch their wings
and fly

080318b

the arachnoid
came around again today
I need to pay the full amount owed
by the time the second moon sets
or she'll put the bite on me
cement cocoon
then after a cis-lunar month
I will go to feed her young
this is why I need a loan
which I'll gladly repay
with any interest rate you like
but I need it today

042218b

jeweled trap
stretched between two trees
dew warning

040218d

If Only


We had not armed the bunnies
to help them in their losing war against coyotes
who knew they wouldn't stop with coyotes?

We had not dumped mutagenic dreck
into the Mississippi River
I am sure we've learned our lesson now

None of the mutants
had been viable
they weren't supposed to be

Mother nature
or whatever that 900 foot woman was
hadn't been quite so pissed

In a way
my favorites were the vampire daisies
purely on aesthetic grounds
but the way things turned out
I am on the hunt for a radioactive spider
or snake
or even a bunny

032118b

Arachnophobial Blues

House flies jam on silken strands,

Bringing the blues home,

Webs are mostly space, like atoms

Connected by invisible strands of force,

Electrons, coming in too close, may stick.

Here the analogy snaps, the fly, tumbling,

Wings glue-stuck and trembling,

Plummeting through space,

To the glad microbial arms,

Of its vasty final home.

Footprints in Stone

I have been given an unbound pre-publication, copy of Footprints in Stone, the book I co-authored with Ron Buta about the Minkin footprint site in Walker County, Alabama. The cover looks really wonderful, and so do the interior illustrations. The publisher expects the book to be available at the end of May, which is sooner than they originally told us. You can preorder the book from Amazon right now:

http://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Stone-Fossil-Coal-Age-Tetrapods/dp/0817358447/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460989262&sr=1-1&keywords=%22footprints+in+stone%22

The trace-fossil fauna at the Minkin site is more diverse than at most Pennsylvanian sites. Vertebrates: 6 spp made by tetrapods & fish. Insects: at least 4 spp. Other arthropods: at least 4 spp. Other critters: at least 2 spp. There are also arthropod body fossils and diverse plant fossils.

The Minkin site is the best trace fossil site of its age in the world. It is one of the few world-class sites that you can visit, accompanied by knowledgeable guides from the Alabama Paleontological Society, and keep most of the specimens you find. If you find anything unusual it will have to be donated to a Museum, but so many specimens have been collected (well over 5000 so far) it is pretty rare to find something you can't keep.

Talk to me if you want to arrange a visit to the site.

Video about "Footprints in Stone"

Here is the link to a 16-minute video about trace fossils. In particular, about 300 million-year-old footprints from North Alabama. Prof. Ron Buta and I wrote a book called Footprints in Stone. It is about the discovery of the site by amateur fossil collectors, their successful efforts to get it preserved by the state of Alabama, and thousands upon thousands of tracks and trails made by reptiles, amphibians, horseshoe crabs, and many other creatures on a mud flat so long ago.

http://vimeo.com/114215060

101314

at first I thought
somebody ate my spider buddy
lower pane
why did she move
her new web is zipped

111013

wherefore are you back
huddled in the sun
bugs to drain and webs to spin
when it gets a bit warmer

110213

Arachne hugs
herself till sun-kissed
cold mornings

101713

the true arachnid
pose is asymmetrical
false too

091513

In praise of spiders


yellow and black bars
say: don't fuck with New York
(not that our plethora of garden spiders
will see NYC, but they know the feeling)
if Rick Perry was a hexapod
they'd make short shrift, I can tell you.

the bay tree, the rose bush, cannas,
railing, window, another window,
porch posts, rose of sharon,
each has she who zips it till the
blunder bus hits the web
then bam!
all she wrote,
till it's egg-sacking time.

I ain't afeared, but I ain't
measured in grams
blind to their snazzy threads
basically a living juice box

and I don't do the wing thing.