Crime Scene

What was their crime, these pictured trees',

fenced in without so much as an "If you please . . ."?

Drawing on forensic science's rhetorical

resources, I must assume it to have been ideological—

for trees bear witness against the human race,

calling attention to its hypocritical totalitarian face.

Like elephants and whales, they're gigantic,

do not forget, and full of grace,

having long forestalled us in this earthly place,

which wherewithal would drive a monkey frantic

that bites its extolled nails to the quick.

September 21, 2024

Whereabouts

Map of the Laniakea Supercluster, consisting of over 100,000 galaxies, including the Milky Way.

A hundred thousand galaxies here pass muster.

Laniākea = “Immeasurable Heaven” in Hawaiian,

But it’s just our local supercluster.

The red dot marks the spot where I am.

Source: Alastair Bonnett, 40 Maps That Will Change How You See the World (London: Ivy Press, 2024).

Ultima Thule, or, How to Talk to the Dead

The mythical island of Thule in the Carta marina of Olaus Magnus (1539)

In the most high and palmy state of Rome,

A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead

Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.

—Hamlet, act 1, scene 1

Conversing with the dead's an art that's felt.

l wouldn't call it fine! First, ask where they are.

Could it be Heaven? Or in the Kuiper Belt,

with just deserts "gàr'd near Neptune’s car"?

Good guess! But Pluto really doesn't like

them! Cerebral skills piss off or take a hike.

A painful soupçon has to be conceded:

Is Ultima Thule the home from home that's needed?

Soliloquizing spirits squeak and groan.

The interlocutor comes across a stone.

Better to be concurring with a quark

than Arrokoth, rotating in the dark!

How should I put it? Look for a karmic spark.

Curriculum vitae's fading from the bone.

The minor planet Arrokoth, formerly called Ultima Thule.

Note: “Arrokoth” is apparently a Powhatan or Virginia Algonquian word meaning “sky” or “cloud.”