The Logic of a Lesser Loved Science
       

can give us our bearings where we're lost.
Things vast and physical point the way.
Take the earth's geology of scars:
from each new shape-shift we learn caution.

Trickier than plants or beasts, landforms
deceive, given the chance. Fumaroles,
domes, tuff, unloading and mass wasting:
any list conceals as it contains.

Distinguish what's essential from mere
clutter. Take two plains: the Snake River's
and the Serengeti's. See the tricks
of likeness? Plains vary more than ducks,

volcanic necks, far more than daisies.
We map terrain best once we've left it,
a new land mass already playing
the slut, promising clean slates and shales.

Never oversimplify causes.
True, three forces reshape our world's skin:
that first igneous creep of desire;
the slow, harsh dismantling of surface;

then rupture—one plane abandoning
the other over a fault or two.
In our study we will, of course, cite
slides, soil creeps, various erosions.

We will speak of what we cannot say.

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Copyright © 2013 Carolyn Moore All rights reserved
from What Euclid’s Third Axiom Neglects To Mention about Circles
White Pine Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission