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Pancake Geology

Layers and layers
spread thin,
like the stratification
of a hogback jutting up
from my plate.

I am the erosion,
cutting down
with each thrust,
lifting out the sediment,
licking each runnel.

Here is the Pleistocene,
the late Cretaceous
Back to the middle Jurassic,
See early Triassic there;
Triassic is getting cold.

◄ Time again

I Have No Fear of Death ►

Comments

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Randall Eckstein

Mon 30th Jan 2017 13:42

Oh, I actually didn't consider that deep into the metaphor. That's a brilliant observation, and I will re-write it to include a period in which an ice-age occurred!

Isn't Lake Powell one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. Just about an hour north of there, in my home state of Utah, they have the Grand Staircase which really showcases the beauty of the stratification. Hope you got to see it. ?

<Deleted User> (13762)

Mon 30th Jan 2017 08:08

I always enjoy a good geological poem so thanks for posting this one Randall. On my travels across the States last year I marvelled at the many stratas of rock high above Horseshoe Bend in Arizona.

I feel there might be a little poetic license in your last line as the Triassic period was distinguished for having mass extinction events at the beginning and end but no ice age to make your pancakes colder! But I might be wrong, I'm no geologist.

All the best,
Colin

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