Bestiary for the End Times

it is a forest fire of the eons
 
small whispers of this life
are diffused in mudstones
throughout earth’s crust
 
vast sleeping jungles with
centipedes the size of alligators
and scorpions the size of dogs
 
this thin whisp of oxygen
gifted us by the faint breath of
living leaves and tendrils
 
is just the icing on the cake
of the far more ancient oxygen
gifted us by antique plankton blooms
 
from vanished seas and the unseen
majesty of the enormous impossible
forests beneath our feet