dendrochronology: the dating of tree rings

the

seedling

sprouts upon

the shoulder of

the mountain where

the shoshone gather

pinyon

nuts

while

the pharoahs

gather stones

and noah gathers

creatures to the ark.

the sphinx sprawls and smiles.

a wooden horse betrays a city,

twins suckle from the wolf,

confucius and the buddha

brighten in the east.

the bible

gets its first

administrative draft,

marathon and thermopylae bleed,

hippocrates and socrates,

alexander, aristotle: dust.

the mayans

take the stars

and render them in stone,

china builds a wall,

venus de milo spreads her arms,

spartacus lifts his fist,

scribes make notes on paper

in cathay.

brutus shows

no mercy to julius,

jesus comes and goes,

jerusalem is overthrown, again.

christians get an emperor,

goths and vandals loot and burn,

st patrick chases snakes.

the empire calls it quits,

the church splits, -then reunites.

king arthur croaks, mohammed speaks,

a plague kills half of europe.

jeruselem changes ownership again.

machu picchu sparkles in the clouds.

vikings moors normans turks,

the pie gets sliced a hundred ways.

macbeth murders duncan, william trounces harold.

the anasazi build their pueblos and

the khmer build angkor wat.

more crusades,

the magna carta,

the inquisition,

ghenghis reigns,

marco brings home spaghetti,

black death sweeps through europe

once again.

the aztecs hail the sun,

and joan burns at the stake.

gutenberg prints his bible,

columbus brings an other version

to the indies

while back in spain

the jews and moslems take

the wafer and the wine

or the flames.

a new business model

for a new world is offered:

african slaves and sugar.

the mona lisa smiles.

luther nails his theses to the door,

cortez takes his guns and armor to the city in the lake,

ann boleyn loses her head.

ivan and akbar carve up central asia,

liz offs mary and galileo drops things off the leaning tower.

hamlet ponders, don quixote tilts, pocahontas saves smith,

then come the dutch, the pilgrims, and the french.

galileo recants, the taj mahal glimmers in the moonlight

and the ming dynasty fades into the night.

descartes postulates, i think....

and the turks are turned back at the gates of vienna.

bach pens his first cantata.

ah enlightenment:

encyclopedias and johnson's dictionary,

watt's steam engine and spinning machines.

revolution, guillotines, mozart, cake!

beethoven hammers out the 5th

and wellington hammers napoleon,

bolivar hammers the spanish out of south america.

photographs, railroads, the alamo.

queen victoria, opium wars and gold.

marx's manifesto, moby dick and florence nightingale,

darwin upsets the apple cart,

america tears itself in half.

alice goes down the rabbit hole,
ships sail through suez,

the plains are cleared of buffalo,

the lakota, and general custer.

room for the telephone,

the phonograph,

electric lights

and standard oil.

a bridge in brooklyn and

a statue in the harbor,

geronimo in chains.

x-rays, movies,

freud interprets dreams, victoria dies,

the wrights fly at kittyhawk.

einstein says its all relative,

san francisco rocks and burns,

picasso paints.

there's trouble in the balkans,

the titanic meets the iceberg.

stravinsky and duchamp stir up paris.

the panama canal and world war debut.

the turks do something bad to the armenians.

lenin plots.

booze goes underground in chicago and peoria,

joyce chronicles a day.

the monkey trial, lindbergh, talkies, jazz.

the crash, the breadlines, hitler.

hiroshima,

korea.

hillary and norgay summit everest,

rosa refuses a seat at the back of the bus.

ginsberg howls, sputnik winks,

the wall goes up in berlin

and the world teeters in october.

15,000 advisors in vietnam.

kennedy gets whacked in dallas,

mandela gets life in prison,

the beatles play on sullivan.

In 1964, donald currey,

a researcher from the university of north carolina,

is studying glacial history on that mountain in nevada

where the seedling bristle cone pine has thrived.

It's late in the year and his coring device is broken,

so donald gets permission from the forest service

to cut down a tree.

that's how the oldest living tree on earth died.

it was 4,862 years old.