Poem: "The World in Its Youth"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is the freebie for the January crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from nsfwords. It also fills the "Historical Fiction" square in my 11-1-22 card for the Drabble Fest Bingo.


"The World in Its Youth"


Long, long ago
the world in its youth
was a totally different place.

The skies rained down
upon the rocks, and
seas became, and rivers.

It took time for the mountains
to rise up, and wear down,
and beget the first sand.

There was no life as yet,
only the building blocks
that could become life,
shimmering in their pools.

Only the air and the water
moved, and it was different air.

Volcanoes breathed out
toxic gasses and made the sky,
but there was almost no oxygen, so
the Earth had a reducing atmosphere.

The first life was simple, as all things
start small and grow from there.

For a long time, life was content
to bask in the waters and just be.

Then one species discovered fire,
harnessing the power of the Sun
through photosynthesis,

and everything changed.

The new algae turned green
with chlorophyll and began
emitting lots of oxygen.


They gave of so much of it
that the atmosphere changed
from reducing to oxidizing,

and almost everything else died.

Only a few of the archaea survived,
hidden in places where oxygen
could not reach in great amounts.

Other than those, what remained
were the algae, so much more powerful
than anything that had come before,

and the ancestors of so much more
that would come along after them.

* * *

Notes:

Read about the history of Earth from its very beginnings.

Comments

[nsfwords]

This is great! \o/ The line “It took time for the mountains/to rise up, and wear down,/and beget the first sand.” was particularly evocative of how long the Earth’s youth lasted.

[mdlbear]

You may know this song, but just in case you don't (or somebody reading this doesn't), here's "Gentle Arms of Eden", by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer - YouTube

Chords and lyrics.