BLASTS FROM THE PAST?
Has all been quiet for four billion years?
Or else a riotous clashing of spears
Hurled among planets which orbit our Sun,
Cosmic catastrophes second to none?
Since Velikovsky proposed Earth had clashed*
With Mars and Venus when close by they dashed
During times Biblical as written down,
Pummelings cyclically seem to abound.
Scientists claim since our Sun coalesced,
Planets’ behaviors have been on their best.
Other than early bombardment when young,
Rarely have any had bells of theirs rung.
Maybe a dinosaur killer or two,
But every time Earth’s recovered anew.
Yet those who search seem quite able to find
Evidence Earth has a history unkind.
Mars’ tortured surface seems evidence of
Recent occurrence of blasts from above.
Maybe electrical plasma discharge
Rather than remnants from ancient seas large?
Cratering not just from bolide attack?
(Mountains of dust and ejecta they lack?)
Rose Mons Olympus from antipode dent
Or giant pimple from plasma descent?
Saturn’s moon Mimas once almost was cleft
Into two halves – massive crater was left.
Still somewhat spherical when you’d expect
It to appear as a pulverized wreck.
Was moon of Uranus nearly destroyed
By the disturbance of rogue asteroid?
So convoluted Miranda remains,
Hard to intuit surviving such strains.
Our System Solar like clockwork behaves
Like ocean’s rolling perpetual waves?
Or’s cosmic billiards the real paradigm,
Cosmic collisions from past yet still prime?
With grain of salt Velikovsky we take.
At what he thought, mostly eye-rolls we make.
Yet ‘mid his musings some essence of truth –
Worlds’ recent bruisings, not only in youth?
__________
* “Worlds in Collision” (1950) [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worlds_in_Collision]
Author Bio:
I am a Professional Engineer who has been writing poetry since 1990. I am an incorrigible rhymer, tending toward the skeptical/cynical regarding daily life. I have been fortunate to have been published in poetry magazines and on-line journals such as NUTHOUSE, MOTHER EARTH INTERNATIONAL, FEELINGS/POETS’ PAPER, MÖBIUS (when Jean Hull Herman published), PABLO LENNIS, MUSE OF FIRE, SO YOUNG!, THE AARDVARK ADVENTURER, POETIC LICENSE, THUMBPRINTS, UNLIKELY STORIES, BIBLIOPHILOS, FULLOSIA PRESS, NOMAD’S CHOIR, HIDDEN OAK, PABLO LENNIS, POETSESPRESSO, SOUL FOUNTAIN, WRITER’S JOURNAL, ATLANTIC PACIFIC PRESS, DERONDA REVIEW, LYRIC, THE STORYTELLER, WRITE ON! and DANA LITERARY SOCIETY.