The Fall of Carthage

Altogether elsewhere, vast

Herds of reindeer move across

Miles and miles of golden moss,

Silently and very fast.

—W. H. Auden, "The Fall of Rome" (1947)

Problems stirring in the south,

Records of a trading nation

Seek appropriate quotation,

Though we live from hand to mouth.

On the shelves of supermarkets

Gleaming goodies grate in aspect.

Voters trip the light fantastic,

Bound for Hades in a basket.

Politicians ignore the rules.

In the bedroom, undone muzzles,

In the kitchen, faded spices.

Ask not now the undertaker’s prices—

Best accept in time of troubles!

Writers taught in writing schools

Find it hard to place their pieces.

Herds of reindeer drop their faeces.

Famous figures in the Cloud

Do their best with what’s allowed.

“Les âmes des morts, disait-il, se résolvent dans la lune comme les cadavres dans la terre.” —Gustave Flaubert, Salammbô (1862)

Sunday, October 26, 2025

Temoignage

The Cosmos Teems with Complex Organic Molecules

“Wherever astronomers look, they see life’s raw materials.”*

At Rhamnous in Attica, I sheltered in the sanctuary of Nemesis,

Who punished hubris in the ancient world,

A Fate who might be helpful dealing with today's,

Considering our piss-proud so-called leaders' suicidal ways.

[Rhamnous takes its name from the buckthorns, Rhamnaceae,

That grow there; see Pseudo-Scylax's Periplus (book of travels).]

So what to do when Fortune’s web unravels,

When Beelzebub's gormy banner's unfurled?

Pace The World as Will and Representation,

Nemeses don’t take kindly to dictation.

Life’s raw materials could end up in a GDP

Comprised of cunningly crafted misery.

Complex organic molecules must have their fun;

But even cosmic marathons in time are done.

*Title and subhead here are from an article by Elise Cutts, https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-cosmos-teems-with-complex-organic-molecules-20241113/ November 13, 2024.

Temoignage = (French) testimony.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_as_Will_and_Representation

Saturday, October 25, 2025

Aught, the Shillourokambos Cat

3D reconstruction of the Early Aceramic Neolithic grave of Shillourokambos.* J.-D. Vigne et al., “Early Taming of the Cat in Cyprus,” Science, 304 (April 9, 2004)

“Middle English, from Old English āwiht, from ā ever + wiht creature, thing.”

—Merriam Webster, s.v.

In 2004, French archaeologists,

At a site in Cyprus called Shillourokambos, 

Found the grave, some nine and a half thousand years old,

Of a man of substance, buried with evidence

To demonstrate his worth, and at his feet a cat,

Interred there with equal care. Let's call the man Neo

(for this was the Neolithic) and the cat, well,

We’ll clearly never know, so let's just call her Aught.

Neo was a warrior, no doubt (you had to be),

And she (Why am I so sure that Aught was a she?)

A mouser and a friend—the first companion cat

Named (now)—who willy-nilly followed him in death.

In the Aceramic Neolithic, humans,

Muggs, my cat, informs me, were still just newly tamed.

*https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/neolithic-cat-burial-in-cyprus-thte-oldest-known-evidence-of-cat-taming

Friday, October 24, 2025