EverGreen~

It was as if she needed the heat
of life combusting around her;
flames rising strengthened
her survivor’s resolve.

When firestorms raged,
she quietly added the resin
of her desire for family
and watched the world burn.

Smoke, a veil for her beauty.
The cries of wild things
dying, song. The scorched smell
of destruction, pomander.

When days cooled down,
and she was the only one left
standing among the scorched ruins,
a celebrity spotlit by sun,

she slyly made her move—
seeding her legendary future
before stunned others could
compete for Earth’s attention.

Millions of millenia later,
romancing the past, we find her
story hidden in the rubble of a quarry.
Breaking open old rocks reveals

in bits of charcoal the secret
of life undaunted by destruction—
pine cones sown in the face of fire
to grow into seedlings with needles ever green.

 

News Links (find out more): BBC, Science Magazine 
Audio Link (hear Anne read the poem): SoundCloud

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Poet with a Press Pass features original poems written by Anne McCrady in response to news stories and world events. The series is produced byInSpiritry.More about Anne and InSpiritry is at InSpiritry.com.