Another
Another
Another
How many layers deep?
I see only the next
Unpack another
See another
Unpack
Another
Until I don’t want
To see anymore
Unpack anymore
Dig anymore
And the creatures
Which skittered there
Having barely left the sea
I think of a wave
And the littlest living things
Awash in the foaming ocean
Not so unlike
The littlest living things
Swishing over my feet in the surf
No life
No green
No creatures
Scurrying
(Or so it seems)
Towering
Above the land
Which for a thousand miles
Has known only sky
And a horizon
Beyond infinity
We enter here
By the millions
Entranced
You see
The mighty columns say
This once was plain
Withered away
Exposing us
The roots of Earth
Soon enough
More rain will come
Erode the land
You’re rooted on
Until you fall
Then come to rest
As dust beneath
Our hoodoo feet
A land made
Of strife
And loss
And longing
Chipped rugged
With malice
And petulance
The sky
Whispered menace
And even a calm sea
Cut rough on the keel
Like sun-baked leather
A car parks beside mine
Released from its confines
A small boy, about five
Runs over to stand beside me
For a moment surveying our domain
