Withering Strands

Far from the Sun

And that frantic dash

Billions before it,

To Earth, had crashed

But in this expanse

Where huge trees unraveled

A new plant was struggling

Where light seldom traveled

This small searching stem

Glimpsed dawn upon dawn,

Dwarfed by gnarled limbs

From the day it was born

Hope given over

To all that is brief

Amidst the detritus,

Dead leaf upon leaf

As its withering strands

Arched back towards earth,

Above it, a movement

A death to bring birth

Rays filtered, then poured

As a forefather fell

With the passing of giants,

The stem could now tell

That life would come quickly,

And it did, as it gorged

Transformed by the day

As the fueling light forged

Fixated above,

The sky its sole purpose,

Its oblivious growth

Led the insects to surface

And small though they were,

En masse, they had come

To gnaw at its base

As it reached for the Sun