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'Continental Drift' - The Metaphor

In the seventies (1), few people dreamed ‘it’ was true,
guessed by scientists first when rough coastlines compared (2)
matched like parts of a puzzle (a jigsaw), found place
that joined ‘drop-offs’ waves hid (hand to glove, not seas’ shores)
called a continent’s ‘shelf’ (3) (showed true edges exact).
But divine (in God’s name!), how on Earth can this be?
For if world’s pronounced “Good,” how’s creation in flux?
Lord! If continents drift, who can dream stars stay fixed? (4)

It’s conundrum for ‘Saved’ who claim, “Truth’s what I do,”
who can’t fathom God’s law, get man’s truth is impaired
where men weave lies like webs in grass fields to save face!
Who among us sees doors, behind doors, ...behind doors
(faith digs moats), flaws plague rhythms one’s muse might transact.
Do we drift with our offspring, adult ‘hopetobe,’
when its diaper fills or wipe off the efflux
with green leaves that we pick in hope stench gets affixed?
*
Fish still flourished in oceans when dinosaurs died (5)
(if God’s floods killed Earth’s life, were fish tanks on the ark?)!
Twice (or more?), legs proved weakness - unlucky or cursed?
See life drift from the sea; land, sea life to the air
as past niches close, blossom anew and find rhyme?
Did Mar’s spores (post-collision) drift blasted to Earth,
and survive trips through space (tough it out), then evolve,
‘marsaform’ (6) earth’s ‘blue pearl’ to a home Mar’s genes need?

As we flourish on Earth, was Mar’s ‘past’ Earth’s life’s guide? (7)
Big Bang’s hydrogen gas formed both star’s and soul’s spark?
We are stardust, in fact, from a science well versed
in the logics time weaves that eclipse ‘truth or dare’
that extends to the edge of observed space and time.
Each star’s light our sun’s light though they drift far from birth. (8)
Truth accelerates faster than theories resolve. (9)
Can stars drift at speeds faster than light (truth’s a seed)? (10)
*
Does life seek what it needs or evolve to greet soil,
first life’s nursery land or hot vents on seas’ floor?
Photosynthesis only one path life has mapped
in the chemical soup of Earth’s early miscues
where green plants played no role (though heat also is light.) (11)
Green’s waste product of oxygen killed Earth’s first real
life (12) that bloomed in its absence, meander whose drift
marked a plan with a path that proved fruitful to walk!

Let the dumb say what’s true! Faith digs moat to embroil
in conflict, keep the riffraff at bay, won’t explore
points of view when it can’t choose who wins! ‘Right’ gets slapped
in debates! Give no quarter or ask it! You’ll lose!
Let me model ALL truth and pray death gives soul flight
(is a model less vain?) Who can prove death can steal
Grace of Christ from a sinner? Drift feels a true gift!
Or does logic I’ve marshaled strike you as ad hoc?


Brian Johnston
5th of April in 2021
Poet’s Notes:
(1) Continental Drift was an attractive if a largely unsubstantiated theory when I was in college in the early 1970’s, but I felt sure even before the continental shelf evidence that it had to be true!
(2) If the West Coast of Africa and the East Coast of South America don’t convince you at a glance that the theory is true, modern Geology has put the theory to bed now as established fact (and with much evidence)!
(3) A continent’s shelf is where relatively shallow coastal waters plunge precipitously downward by hundreds of feet or more.
(4) The fixed stars do indeed change their positions both relative to one another and in their distance from us. Most stars are moving away from us with a speed that is increasing, but astronomers have determined that one
galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy, will collide with our galaxy, the Milky Way, in 4-5 billion years and eventually fully merge. The
stars in each galaxy are so far apart that it is unlikely there will be any actual collisions, however.
(5) The dinosaurs all died roughly 66 million years ago when a giant asteroid struck in the shallow waters near the Yucatán Peninsula and left an undersea crater nearly 112 miles in diameter. Ash deposits linked to this collision encircle the whole planet. It was not a good day for land animals!
(6) ‘Marsaform’ - A joking reference to the word ‘terraform’ which suggests the possibility that we will one day make a whole planet (like Mars) habitable for human life.
(7) Scientists are confident that they have found meteors here that traveled from Mars and landed on Earth after a giant asteroid collided with Mars in the distant past. These meteors suggest our forebears could have Martian origin.
(8) All stars burn hydrogen primarily, and we can tell this by breaking the light from the star down with a prism and looking at the frequencies of light it radiates. All elements give off different frequencies of light, and so we can identify the
star’s makeup. We can even tell if it moves towards us or away from us (and how fast) by examining the star’s ‘Red Shift.’
(9) Frequently, Science observes things that current theories can not yet explain. In such a case, Truth gets ahead of theory!
(10) Sometimes, it seems that every new truth suggests the possibility, at least, that even deeper truths await discovery. Wow! What fun!
(11) Infrared light is light that we feel with our skin as heat but cannot see with our eyes, though a few animals can see infrared light that we cannot.
(12) There is strong evidence that suggests the first life on Earth was anaerobic (did not use oxygen). As photosynthesis evolved, which produces oxygen as a byproduct (called aerobic life), the newly released oxygen proved poisonous to the earlier life forms. So early life is mostly extinct.
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