Petal Of Pearl

A polished petal of white shell,
A mile from the sea,
left by ancient receding tide,
or dropped by the old predator, escaping.

How much data,
This opalescent slip of pearl,
How many gigabites?
My primative technology
Cannot print or read it.

I can only admire
This artifact of an old life,
a lost stronghold,
a birth, a death,
and all the poems
in between.

I find it while out walking
After rain,
Shining in the dirt
Wetly in the sun,
a scrap of someone's poem,
A life's labour, fallen fortress
Against the dark,
A stranger's polished shell,
A signature and His who made him,
Now mine to treasure.