"Strangeness" by Rebecca Zeigler

This rock was once at the bottom of the Sea
of Iapetus, says the geologist; it sounds so otherworldly,
so alien – another planet, or a realm of fantasy!

But the continents have no firm roots: they glide
about the surface of the Earth; they collide
to form new landmasses; they subdivide.

The seas of the Earth do not stay curled
in their own abysses; they come unfurled
to drown mountains. New trenches crack the world.

Here, just under my feet, lies strangeness.
No need to dream of alien worlds; this
rock, at hand, immensely old, records histories,

which, contemplated, make this, our own world, uncanny.
We’re not at home here; this fellow entity,
so familiar, so commonplace, embodies strange memory.

To this knowledge, one can only respond with awe.
Take your shoes from off your feet: you tread on something raw
with altering, metamorphosis – shaped by alien law.

-Rebecca Ziegler