Issue 5, Winter 2008

Paleontologist's Insert 
by Sally Molini

Just so you know:  a relic
is not some objective
blip or ephemeral schema
for a roving subjective eye --
each carbon-carved thing
is layered multitudes
pushing for surface, the past's
prehistory, skeletal ink
waiting to be read, fossil-
future the earth's afterworld.
Here in the elemental yoke
even dust has something to say,
magma cooled to free-range
bits, rock and bone outlasting
themselves, last-rite specks
haunting the carnivorous air.