earth note 71

pittsburgh

allegheny observatory riverview park
takes the long view of the cosmos
dead scientists
copernicus galileo newton herschel
laplace le verrier secchi draper
keeler adams fraunhoffer bond
peirce huygens langley newcomb
(alright so their names are etched in stone)
as they reach out from the white columns
to watch
a line of limos and junkers in a funeral procession
across the valley
rolling like a steady stream of vision
unison
slowly up the hillside
and the trumpet of a woodpecker
speaks truth to power
and memory

---e b bortz

(published in The Exchange, #10, 2001)