T h e   W e l l
- for my father -

cephalopod_in_well2.jpg (8189 bytes)Ammonite

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 You dug a well through deepening layers of loam,
caliche, clay, Cretaceous fossil rubble,
down through moist sandstone catacombs.
Finally, at the slate layer, water bubbled.

Down the well-shaft, amputated roots
thrust crisp cut fingers from the earthen wall,
their world invaded, agonized and mute.
You dropped a fossil seashell, let it fall

back into time - the dark stream down below.
The water geysered briefly, smoothed again,
reverting to its blind ancestral flow,
aloof to ancient shells or grubbing men.

Then a shaft of sunlight pierced the well,
revealing all earth's ages to the sky.
In circled water where the fossil fell,
our faces rippled in its wakened eye.

 

 

thistle