earth to earth

All about the carbon cycle.

earth to earth

…settling.

the miasma pools,

notes the molten eyes,

the razor breath,

tenses.

tapering,

a limb extends,

advances wispily, tentatively,

strokes recoiling flesh

tenderly.

trembling, the fume gathers, rears--

gasping:

the air like gravel,

fingers gloved in ice.

knowing,

the old man feels his shadow tugged,

turns.

the lash rips across his cheek,

plunges,

finds the stumbling, lunatic heart,

squeezes.

flaring, the probe bristles, dives;

severing nerve, shattering bone,

sucking furiously at marrow--

whipping the flimsy carcass about,

dashing its brittle skull on stone;

gnawing it, gutting it,

pounding and

flaying and

grinding it

…down.

to gristle, to gore,

to compost, to clay--

onus, elan, are purged in the wind.

the vessel dissolves:

to garbage, to grit, to whisper;

to wit:

to sludge, to seepage,

to sewage, to s**t;

lost in the soil

…settling.

Reviews

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

the poem brings me back to 8th grade learning about the carbon cycle and being amazed. i really enjoyed science classes. then i flunked the exams and i chose the path of an English major, but i digress.
love the use of rhyme and alliteration. it was a fun read. not just educational, but captures the joy of learning.