National Academy of Science’s Guided Day-Cruise of Old Earth

David Martin

To your left, observe how the deposition for bedding in the omega strata occurred astonishingly quickly, in what team leads have denominated as Superficial Ages. Nevertheless, it is painless to characterize the variegated composition within this geological period and document how its components had been dealt, fanned, and accumulated through consolidation. Lodes of middens, quarries, side-streets, and airstrips are threaded consistently throughout the formation. As well, technofossils serve as reliable stamps for dating discrepancies within strata ranges, e.g. books, pencils, telephones, and various forms of currency. Care must be taken when extracting specimens, as they tend to disintegrate when exposed to light.

The bedrock of this igneous frenzy consists primarily of concrete, steel, plastic, capital, communication networks, and anxiety. In the centre-most period of this worldwide crust, one can discern faults and grabens that exemplify the turn from human dominance to the system’s own agency. Unlike the planet’s Biosphere, which recycled and regenerated continuously, the Technosphere accreted inexorably, eventually achieving a tipping point into consciousness that indicated the super-organism’s pursuit of its own needs and inclinations.

Life forms in the Technosphere thereafter discovered it was a system they were compelled to serve to remain alive. As the total aggregation of the Technosphere at last exceeded the requisite balance to the relative density of the crust beneath it, soon fluctuations in the Earth’s isostasy, rotation, and axis angle occurred, vastly superseding the natural alterations as predicted in the Milankovitch cycles. As revolution decelerated, the moon reversed its escape from orbit and returned closer, which, naturally, modified global tidal patterns and growing cycles.

Finally, when the Technosphere achieved a climax through recurrent sintering, a concluding torpor secreted itself across the planet’s skin, sealing underlying strata completely. Please note how one is able to perceive the thinning dispersal of biomass as we reach the maximal echelon of our journey.

Note: Technosphere is a term given to the portion of the environment that has been utilized or inhabited by humans. Its estimated weight is thirty trillion tons.

David Martin works as a literacy instructor in Calgary and as an organizer for the Single Onion Poetry Series. His first collection, Tar Swan (NeWest Press, 2018), was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award and the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Book Prize. David’s work has been awarded the CBC Poetry Prize, shortlisted for the Vallum Award for Poetry and PRISM international’s poetry contest, and has appeared in numerous journals across Canada.