a footnote on climate change
We began with the cuneiform tablets
from the dig's lowest level
but it took longest to decipher
the last, the uppermost.
The tablet was clear and unbroken but
we found the meaning obscure —
until the soil's chemistry confirmed
what had been speculation:
it recorded the year the earthworms died
as the long drought continued.
In older tablets we'd learned how yields
of wheat and barley declined,
how the prices of grain and beer
had continued to rise
as emigration turned to evacuation, policy
born of necessity.
We admired this historic example of
bureaucracy's resilience,
envisioning the chief scribe
turning back to say:
Will the last one out of the city please
vitrify that tablet.
Robert M. Chute's book of poetry based on scientific articles, Reading Nature, is available from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
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