a subterranean
\nsounding<\/p>\n
rock unsteady
\nfissuring from roque<\/p>\n
has it begun<\/p>\n
the new sedimentary
\nsentence<\/p>\n
our influence
\non rock<\/p>\n
\u201d\u0192
\nis it an animal
\nfive-generation
\nimagination
\nthat fails to stop<\/p>\n
this scrabbling to
\nun-earth<\/p>\n
killing time
\nby burning<\/p>\n
guzzling <\/p>\n
fossils tucked warm
\nin rock a million years<\/p>\n
is it obscene
\nto call this epoch
\nof the present melting<\/p>\n
ice age \tanthropocene <\/p>\n
after a pyromaniac
\nrace of vertebrates\u201d\u0192
\naren’t we colonizing time<\/p>\n
reducing the stratigraphic record <\/p>\n
to our hour
\n\/ minute hands<\/p>\n
can’t earth, the rock of it, remain<\/p>\n
intractable<\/p>\n
\u201d\u0192
\nin the multi-volume registers
\nof rock H. sapiens is the latest
\none-line entry<\/p>\n
but the mineral alphabet does not begin
\nwith anthropos <\/p>\n
\u201d\u0192
\nit begins with dust <\/p>\n
with mud<\/p>\n
sun, water<\/p>\n
bits of fin, claw, mandible<\/p>\n
deposits <\/p>\n
in the bank <\/p>\n
of Time<\/p>\n
\u201d\u0192<\/p>\n
Darwin compared our knowledge
\nof the structure of the earth <\/p>\n
with chickens scratching in the corner
\nof a 100-acre field<\/p>\n
Levi-Strauss proposed the study of
\nentropology, our hurry<\/p>\n
to disintegrate, blithely
\nbreaking down all structure<\/p>\n
\u201d\u0192<\/p>\n
last century men<\/p>\n
established
\nmethodologies:<\/p>\n
observing
\nmeasuring
\nsurveying
\nmapping
\ndrilling
\nmagnifying
\nheating
\npressurizing
\nacidifying
\nliquefying
\nrefining
\ndefining<\/p>\n
monetizing
\ninert matter<\/p>\n
turning rock
\ninto bread<\/p>\n
\u201d\u0192
\nrock hounds<\/p>\n
lives spent out of doors<\/p>\n
deciphering lithos into lingua<\/p>\n
created a field<\/p>\n
geo-logy, or how to read
\nthe rock column of time<\/p>\n
in words and rocks
\nthe order is the meaning<\/p>\n
\u201d\u0192
\nearth the story they’re breaking
\nlegible only if intact<\/p>\n
not hoarded
\nsold to speculators prospectors
\npetrochemical lords<\/p>\n
nor ignored
\nin the orogenies
\nof daily new\/s<\/p>\n
but graven
\n\u201d\u0192
\nhere<\/p>\n
in a field
\nof antiquity<\/p>\n
of ore and meteor <\/p>\n
rusting outside a rock shop
\njust past Zion<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Susan-Barba-web-9041-media-square-300x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
ABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/strong> earth the story they’re breaking not hoarded nor ignored New poetry by Susan Barba.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87560"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91757,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87560\/revisions\/91757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSusan Barba<\/strong> is a poet and translator whose work has been published in Poetry, Boston Review, The Hudson Review, The Yale Review, Antioch Review, Harvard Review, and Words Without Borders. She works as a senior editor with New York Review Books and lives in Cambridge, MA. Her first full-length poetry collection, Fair Sun<\/em>, was published this spring by David R. Godine, Publisher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.3ammagazine.com\/3am\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Susan-Barba-web-9041-media-square-420x179.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nlegible only if intact<\/p>\n
\nsold to speculators prospectors
\npetrochemical lords<\/p>\n
\nin the orogenies
\nof daily new\/s<\/p>\n