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A Pleiocene Posy

Earth in the Zanclean Age of the Pleiocene Epoch, five million years ago (Wikipedia)


“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his.”—

Oscar Wilde,The Importance of Being Earnest


"It is more fortunate [mακάριόν] to give than to receive"—Acts of the Apostles 20:35


Oscar couldn't foresee a future

When men like women might become

For want of more lucky nurture,

Extras in the maternal sum.


He was wrong, too, to anticipate

A parental tragedy lying in wait

For all women in inheritance.

That switch, let's face it, makes no sense!


He, with those coruscating sallies

Made naughty cracks at fools' expense.

Grave idiots, seeking recompense,

Nabbed him by the short and curlies.


Spectators shouldn't tease a snake

That rises up to spit its venom.

Idiots are always on the make.

Their law looks out for Number One.


Scientists sequence DNA

From ancient sedimentary samples.*

What archaic dirt has to say

Sheds fresh light on new examples.


We humans need to comprehend

That what drives us round the bend

Serves socially to elucidate

Women's tragedy, and man's fate.


The secret path of where we’ve been

Leads to a private Pleiocene,

And shows us, surely, where we’re bound

If we don't heal our mother’s wound.


Envoi


If you do or if you don't,

If you will or if you won't,

That's the eventual shape of things—

The dirge the Anthropocene sings.


Notes


*On extracting mitochondrial DNA from dirt, see, e.g., https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/hunt-for-the-oldest-dna/

The term "Pleiocene" derives from the Greek πλεῖον (pleion, “more”) and καινός (kainos, “new, recent”), but it was 300 to 500 million years ago—the last time the world got much, much hotter.

Our word "idiot" comes from the Greek noun ἰδιώτης (idiōtēs), meaning originally a selfish individual who contributed nothing to the public needs of the polis.

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Photo by Peter Dreyer

 Cyclops by Christos Saccopoulos, used by kind permission of the sculptor.

Copyright © 2023 - by Peter Dreyer

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