Cretaceous Fog

337 29 12

by MajorSeventh

by MajorSeventh

We sit on a limestone slab -

(giant's building stuff, I say
property of old Cliff Falls, local big-guy*)

sometime fallen from pediment layers
chaotically with other slabs and fragments:
red-chalk, lower, so stained
by iron seepage, sandstone
and carstone, laid sediment
in the Cretaceous,
(I prod
my holly stick through the pebbly)
though what,
(waving it seaward)
these thousands of beach boulders
we've been jumping upon,
crunching barnacle shells
en route to this cold picnic
(strewn stromatolite-like*
but for curves and alignments) are,
no one I can search-engine
but cranky Electric-Universe freaks
will upfront a public guess.

Mist of unknowing has descended
in physical form today.
Four p.m.
and barely visible the promenade lights;

not that gulls conducting
their half crooning, half proclaiming
conversations, perched in the white lime
or the red chalk or dark-ocher sandstone
care;
          neither do cohorts
                                                of Canada geese,
defining our sensual envelope
as they emerge from grey murk,
voices first -
                         creaking of trireme rowlocks
perhaps
                 (What color sails?)
                                                       but
flying lines contrast shape-shifter
Gestalt, honking in jerking
frame-by-frame wings,
easing or overhauling,
aligning mystery logograms*
one after another,
                                     parading, fading -
their calls thereafter.

..................

*Well, it does say on a big sign to beware of him - Cliff Falls, short for Clifford, I expect.
*Stromatolites were formed a long time ago by layers of photosynthesizing cyanobacteria which played a role in oxygenating the planet.
*Logogram - a written character that represents a word or phrase.
The beach boulder pic was taken on another day - not foggy. There are three more Hunstanton Beach Boulder poems, one in 'Crunchy Fluff', the others in 'Hurry Slowly'
https://www.wattpad.com/78411587-hurry-slowly-hunstanton-beach-boulders
https://www.wattpad.com/78914190-hurry-slowly-summer-samhain-day