I was buried deep beneath the clay

Not yet aware of the daylight.

Curled up and cloistered,

feeling the hours pass away

while shadows slipped through

earthworm tunnels.

Gradually I grasped some sense

to reach for soil below;

gravity – my clarity,

all I cared to know.

Then it one day occurred to me

that I breathed.

Breath within me

Breath that changed me!

And gradually, I grew;

sprouted and sprang

through the surface

of all that was familiar.

Then it occurred to me

that I feared,

but I could not crawl back.

Then came creepers crawling,

scaling and scurrying.

They clung to me,

sheltered under my leaves,

and clawed at my stem.

I shuttered at their movements

and shunned their pitiful appearance,

but they needed me

as I needed soil,

to keep me steady

while I stretched towards

the sun.

I continued to grow

until a golden bud

bloomed upon my brow,

and many other strange

passings passed.

Then one day,

there was a deep silence.

Cold came

to wrinkle my head

and shrink my stem.

I grew tired,

and the was the strangest thing of all.