It is a simple matter for scientists, explained by the geology of millennia,
layers of sediment stacked like pancakes, laced with
one mineral or another, a bit of iron oxide here, and there, a bit more.
Sandstone, limestone, shale hiding snail fossils and trilobites,
clues in the long game of time, prizes scattered in
Utah’s Crackerjacks box of ancient sand left behind by
a vast inland sea, dehydrated into desert, then rearranged
as plates shifted – contracting, expanding, crashing, twirling,
slipping like dancers coming together and pulling apart,
closing the show with one exquisite, cockeyed lift.
Read More