A thousand million searing years
Has cooled through Gaea's falling tears.
A ball afloat around a star,
Apart, remote her neighbors are.
Around our star do comets fall
And sometimes hit our little ball.
The ice explodes and flashes steam,
Then lava cools and rain drops stream.
On glass-like stone, they bounce and splash,
For years on years, abrade and gash.
Each drop looks for the lowest place
Where drop by drop, it starts a race.
Each stream a trickle at it's head,
Add to the scouring of the bed.
A scalpel carving slow and long,
Exploits the weakness of the strong.
The world cools slowly by our lights,
From black sand beach to highest heights.
Then aided by volcanic plumes,
The sun light masks, and winter looms.
Then from somewhere in that stone soup,
Four enzymes form a helix loop.
In years beyond imagining,
Those tiny loops form one long string
And everything with life we know,
From single cells diverge and grow.
Each life becomes a signal thought,
That flashes "Look what God hath wrought."
Look at the waters of the deep,
Without which earth would never keep
Her place as life's unlikely nest.
Still every day we face the test,
Is her blood pure enough to give
The nutrients she needs to live.
She's been the mother of us all,
Now we must answer at her call.
Richard Higley © May 12 2014
