poem || Jeff Harrison

The Geological Time of Aphra Behn


THE FEIGN'D CURTIZANS

the Quaternary (which is further
divided into Pleistocene epoch
& Holocene epoch) was a period
(the 2nd of the Cenozoic era)

of successive ice ages, flat ice
outside to magnify the malady w/in
so's skies suspect calendar'd dead

those dead, those
seven, were ruined by lightning

lightning,
what of you that stuck around,
suffer my, the 8th?, sickly steps

*

A FARCE CALL'D THE FALSE COUNT

the Tertiary is termed the age of
mammals. flowering plants, grasslands,
& - deciduous trees widespread - &
aloud softly with harvest & remorse:
a proverb a day for their pains. tears
misted them on, onward, in general bowed.
ask never the day again, the Tertiary, oh

*

OROONOKO: OR, THE ROYAL SLAVE

Cretaceous: thunderous lizards ruled
the land, the skies, the seas;

thus, obedience. thus, writing
rescues theory, the skies, seas,

insects, crocodiles,
& tortoises
continued to evolve

*

POEMS UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS

Jurassic with brambles anew, birds
first appeared. dominant: cycads,
conifers. more than a fair share
of ammonites, brachiopods, bivalves.

thus let the crown hold; pierced
is every fetter with Virginia's limbs

*

THE YOUNG KING: OR, THE MISTAKE

the Triassic is termed "Portrait:
Headless, with Mirror" when, as
in night, mammals & giant marine
reptiles are bent to black & grey,

hideous, forlorn.

*

THE EMPEROR OF THE MOON

1223 1443 5226
5446 7889 7449

108811 10121211
138814 13121214

15161617 15121217
18161619 18202019

{Palaeozoic} 21161622
{crimson,} {that channel}

*

THE CITY HEIRESS

quoth the Ordovician
("age of graptolites"
is analogue of "tempting")
period "Am Dust", was Foil'd, Was it

Go Down, Star (Ordovician; far), the day's
Up, Closer Sun: this lyric, graptolite else,
is another Good Samaritan of the Dawns