THE MISSING PLEISTOCENE MEGAFAUNA LAMENT
The missing Pleistocene megafauna lament
us our stunts and carriages, our
roll-top desks: a litter of plastics
and snailish curios. The mastodons
and cave bears—underfoot, in
sediment or tar, washing up
on our beaches like wayward porpoises,
sonar whacked—bray at the unaccustomed
exhaust and sawdust, the scrapings
and residue of a nonstick age. Where
are the jumbo dragonflies? the skyscraper
ferns? The old world teemed with sap
and buzzing, rot refreshing rot, a landscape
rife with commonplace cataclysms:
every frond and wing the color of eruption.
APPLIED MATHEMATICS
a product is
the last
apparatus
of intention
a crane above
a city
of cranes