Ordovician Fossil Algae

This is the oldest book
That I can read with pleasure.
The Cambrian trilobite
It is an unpleasant sight,
As for Pre-Cambrian algae I look and look
And cannot see them, though I’m told they’re there.

But these Exquisite fern-like forms
Printed upon the rock,
These fragile plants that have survived the storms
Of some old billion years
Move me almost to tears.

So I come here often
To see these delicate stems
Breathed on the rock like frost crystals on a window,
But permanently,
But forever.
This rock is my favorite book, my favorite picture,
My dependable scripture,
My sense of wholeness, a billion years at by elbow.

“Ordovician Fossil Algae” ~Lindley W.Hubbell