(inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer)
mosses have survived the longest of all
the plants, 400 million years
mosses are the original storytellers, adaptable
whilst imparting truths, not stubborn in thought
mosses have low competitive ability
they live steady, diversify, between chaos and chaos
at only a centimetre tall, mosses are
small
they don’t grab
resources efficiently
they have to thrive
in the interstices, as if
a submerged sunrise
they have no epidermis, intimacy
creates their resilience
overlooked, they have to thrive
in places where dominant plants can’t live
mosses cooperate by sharing their resources, however limited, to give more than they take
mosses shelter in place, they build soil, purify
water, making homes for invertebrates, where
animal life begins
mosses do all of these things
once upon a time, they encouraged flowers
to carpet the earth
turning sunlight into sugar which brought fruit and food
then the animals came to make energy and proteins from the sweetness
then came humans, already too late, on their knees, with cupped hands, inducing dreams to make science, medicine, poetry and music to reproduce all the love found in moss