Endless — such a relative term!

Surely depends on frame viewed,

Perhaps from life-cycle of germ,

Or that of a universe construe d.  

Of eternity’s ages fore and aft,

Of granite mountain or liquid sea,

Of humanity and his clever craft,

Even of life and all to be.

Arctic Ocean under ice may lie,

But biologic species, layers hold.

Organisms emerge, live and die,

Fall aimless through liquid cold.

Biota feed, scavenger,carnivore,

On “snow” that’s heading down,   

All finally ends on ocean’s floor,

Where Snow crabs’n such abound.  

Eat “snow,” may pass themselves

As delicious food for other palates:

Humans netting on ocean shelves,

Actions of seals illustrates.  

But whatever remains settles in mire,

That’s accumulation of all before

Resting on bedrock formed of fire,

Thickening, adds some more.

Bottom imperceptibly promulgates,

Over time, if not altered by force

Of magma or sliding tectonic plates,

This sediment compresses, of course.

Whole earth is example of “snow,”

Home for what we touch and feel,

Recorded in layers as the eons go,

Gravity’s tracks, more tracks conceal. 

Gravity’s surely a leveling mill,

Reflecting ecologic fluctuations.

Rocks, dislodged, roll down hill,

Dust settles in layered aggregations,

Songs of pre-history truly relayed,

Across billion multiples of year,

A paleontologists’ CD played,

Music of bony fossils we hear,

Sing sweetly of life’s early form,

Incentivised growth and escalations,

Tracks show change is the norm —

One cell to today’s accumulations.   

So all this record we can analyze,

And tease knowledge of our past,

Because of gravity’s enterprise —

“Global Snow” — varied and vast.

© 2009 R. Leland Waldrip