The Earth's Horizons: Panorama

By Michèle Métail

This article appeared in the September 24, 2007 edition of The Nation.

September 6, 2007

An observer limits her point of view to the line

OF A FOLD BORN FROM TORSIONS OF A GEOLOGICAL AGE
TOO ANCIENT TO RESIST THE TRANSITIVE EARTHQUAKES
CAUSING PLATES TO TREMBLE UNTIL INVASIVE UPLIFTS
RESIST PRESSURES FROM A TERRAIN VERY TERRESTRIAL
OF CRUST WHOSE SMOOTH BENDING STRETCH FORCES THE
DOME OF THE BOW INTO AN INFLECTION AND GLACIALLY
SUPERPOSES THE MOTIONS OF ARCHING AS THE REVERSE
STRATIFICATION MOVEMENTS OF INTERLACING ELEMENTS
BIND THE INCONSTANT AGGLUTINATES INTO DISCORDANT
DEPOSITS UNDER LATERAL PRESSURE IN THE TORMENTED
ZONE OF STRIATIONS IN WEIGHTY LAYERS OF REPLICAS
AND FLOOD WAVE-CUT PLATFORMS THAT ACCENTUATE THE
FLEXURE WITHOUT BREAKING ITS LAYERS CONSOLIDATED
AT THE BASE BY A PROFUSION OF INVISIBLE ORGANICS
THAT INSUBSTANTIAL AND TRANSITIVE PROJECTIONS OF
TURBULENCES CONCENTRATE IN SOMBER FRAGMENTS THAT
DETACH UPON CONTACT WITH THE CRYSTALLIZATIONS OF
THE DIVIDED GLOBE THAT THE SLOW START DISMANTLED
CAUSING SUFFERING THROUGH FAST TRANSLATION AFTER
TEMPORARY FLUCTUATIONS AFFECTED BY UNPREDICTABLE
DEFORMATIONS WHOSE CRASHINGS CEASE JUST WHEN THE
PEACEFUL SIMULACRUM OF A REMISSION COMMENCES NOT
LIKE YESTERDAY WHEN EQUILIBRIUMS RUPTURED AT THE
ABANDONED SPACE IN A DARK FRACTURE OF ITS PLINTH

(translated from the French by Marcella Durand)

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