Grave
It is all, allover the earth, underearth, a graveyard:
tree ferns, trees—roots,bark, seeds—ancientlife that emerged
from the sea, forestsflooded to swamps& bogs, transformed
to peat, transformedagain, sunk, coveredwith layers of earth
with strangeamphibian, snake& later dinosaur
bones—layers& layers & underit all for hundreds
of millionsof years, ourancestors, resting
under earth, over-burdened, we say,until we found them.
A History
from the Oxford English Dictionary
Col groweþ vnder lond (1387)
though … be good Plenti of Wood, yetthe People burne much of Yerth Cole (1538)
They digge out of the mountaynes a certayne kindeof blacke stone which burne in the fyre like coles (1553)
There doth yet remain greatquantities of Coles in the Earth (1667)
Coals were heretofore seldom usedin Chambers, as now they are (1687)
a new way of makingpitch and tarre out of pit coale (1682)
smelting down lead withPit-Coal and Sea-Coal (1720)
They burn earth-coal everywhere…
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The American Poetry Review (Digital) - 1 Issue, November/December 2021