The Fossil Fern

The Fossil Fern

Lift it gently, it was green once.

Honour it, it had the same life as you.

It was tall and strong once

lifting viridian fronds

against the adolescent sky

of a chaotic juvenile world,

still bright and hot with newness

from the celestial forges.

It lived once, as you do now,

and it died and fell, as you shall soon,

and gained this lithic immortality

-       As well may you.

And from under whose feet

will you look upwards,

a faint ghost stamped in stone,

a lost memory from an abyss of ages?

Whose eyes will you meet

under a senile, reddening sun?