Origins
by Judy Klare

From under tumbled stone stelae
or chiseled into thin sounds
beneath marbleized
mastabas

preserved where antique ice moved
or where volcanoes rained mud and ash

established
by Neaderthal decree

fossilized by chemical transfer
atom by atom

maintained
within ecosystems
or obscured by nature

dried through purification
tried by tropical heat
disguised
husbanded
contrived
in earth's crucible

but not in epitaphs trained from the sky
aimed for the jugular
or the innocent.