Bless the diatoms encased in lacy nets of glass
turning in the drift like brides before the mirror.
Bless the chill soil of their country on the underside
of Arctic ice where golden cells harvest trickles of light
feeding copepod, cod, seal and bear. Bless
the bear’s great footfalls shaking the algae cities
from above as Ursus strides the white crown
of the world. Bless Spirogyra with its chloroplast coiled
between clear walls like a green serpent, bless
colonial Volvox whose cells gather in spheres
and beat their whip tails in unison. Bless
the unpronounceable coccolithophores who bloomed
in multitudes through deep time, whose bodies
brighten the White Cliffs of Dover and still ignite
the southern ocean with gyres of turquoise. Bless the sweet
sea broth the oyster pulls through its siphon, rich enough
to shape into pearls, bless the whales who quaff great mouthfuls
as fuel for their long migrations. Bless the photic zone, thin layer
of hope over fathoms of darkness, bless the oxygen
that swells half of all breath, bless the secret glitter
and pulse in each droplet, bless the microscopic Milky Way
that cradles us as we swim, drift, float, a single green cell shining in the void.
—
Laurel Anderson is a plant ecologist and poet. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Ecotone, Terrain.org (semi-finalist, 12th Annual Poetry Contest), Radar Poetry, EcoTheo Review, Split Rock Review, The Fourth River, and elsewhere. Laurel teaches science at Ohio Wesleyan University and lives with her family in central Ohio, USA.
