The Lichen

The Lichen

A poem about life, death, and rebirth.

Edited by Livingston County Writers & Critics Support Group

The lichen creeps along the wall of the city overpass
Growing on the concrete slabs
Blanketing the pavement wall
Flowers grow amidst blowing snow
Even death cannot contain
The lichens growing green
In the darkened, grainy sky, a hope of life pulsates joy within despair; love’s sweet trances singing
While cold winds lash, Lake Michigan’s surf tears at the rocky shore
The trees reflect a deadened brown for summers’ death knell
Ringing
Gardens with their deadened husks are sheened in icy sleet
Shakespeare’s statue pensive sits
Amidst flower stalks now deadened
One calls out in lamentation
Has summer been in vain? Is there not a trace of life in this dark, dreary land?
Behold, I see the lichen grow along the rocky clefts
The green defies November’s plague
A flower grows amidst the rocks
Green lichen climbs the concrete walls
A gentle psalm proclaiming life amidst the deadened land
Mid-winter’s stormy gale blows hard
A hopeless lamentation as summer lies entombed
A flower blanketed in the lichens growing green
Doth whisper hope in a world of darkness stark and dreary
Mid-winter’s frigid winds veil a somber truth to life’s dead, daily drag
Yet on the crags and concrete walls the lichen grows in sacred green
A harbinger of beauty yet to come

Word count: 212