What the Fossils Tell

Peering through the coils of time,

fingers dance across ribbed shells.

Cold rock beneath the pads,

while sharp edges serate my skin.

The fossils rest muted, grey, dull,

shells no longer glittering white.

Time has passed through these ancient beings,

until they rest, glass-cased for sight.

This slow moving life reached its end,

but now lives longer than before.

A creature from a time of yore,

so close, now so out of time to see,

wishing that it would float through the sea.

But that time has passed, I know it so,

the life it lived was so long ago, and yet,

here it rests to tell its tale,

a history unlike no other.

I sit on and listen to its voice,

telling me extinction is not a choice,

rather a period of rebirth,

to uncover a new version of Earth.