Poetic Micro Essays
This column features Tripod Poems, poetic micro essays inspired by three randomly chosen words. These words become the title of the piece, are contained within the piece and are developed into observations on life in the Southwest and beyond.
Fossil – Pool – Bygone
A fossil reveals
a life-form that thrived
in a bygone time.
In the Sacramento mountains,
at an elevation of 9000 feet,
high above the Tularosa Basin,
there are trace fossils
of ancient sea plants
and nautilus shells.
Ninety-million years ago,
the Cretaceous Inland Sea
flowed through the western
center of our continent.
Some of what remains intact
of that outsized water mass
lies subterranean, a silent
pool beneath the gypsum
of White Sands Missile Range.
These mountains are relatively
new peaks, with upraised
and trace fossils revealing
the life that thrived here
when the ancient waterline
was not yet upheaved
violently into the sky.
Photo credit: Sacramento Ranger District Interpretive Sign. Photo by Eve West Bessier
Photo credit: Seaways Map, stock photo