Written by Ken Carman

I came upon a field
Once swallowed by a lake
Fall took the lake water
to a new low
and below
I see stumps
Once upon another lifetime
Here
There had been a forest

I came upon yet another field
And an old foundation
Where a haberdashery
Sold its wares
Look over there
Between mere tokens
Of old broken cement
wet and rotted roots
And ancient stumps
Once upon another lifetime
Here
There there was a forest

Nothing left but sand
On the surface of this planet
Sand storms form
Where once there were foundations
from many grand Martian nations
All eventually must turn to dust
But way beneath the sand
Water and…
Such a marvel to see
A stump of a red Martian tree
Where
Once upon another lifetime
Here
There was a forest

Life clings
Life persists
Life tends to insist
Even when all life dies something
Or maybe someone on high
makes life continue to try
And sometimes life returns
Cause life’s wanderlust yearns
Once life learns something’s amiss
Life always seeking
to replant its kiss
on some new vista

Long after some spaceship lands
One wonders if someday
Somewhere
Placed here or there
by some hand
Some alien visitor might find a sign
A placard planted
By those who spread life’s seeds
And the visitor reads
As he stands upon a now very lush land
“Once upon a time
Here
There was only sand”
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©Copyright 2012
Ken Carman
all rights reserved