Graptolite - a Moral Tale

One day while climbing on a crag

my friend’s good fortune was to bag

a piece of prehistoric swag.

Now what a thing to come to light

it really was a graptolite!

 

Not dreaming that its end was near

It laid in stone without a fear

for several hundred million year

its role in history perverted -

its flesh to slaty rock converted -

 

So rich a find - his joy was great

it caused him to gesticulate

and hurry home to demonstrate.

So, quickly for the journey back

his prize he stowed inside his pack

 

Neglecting naught, to keep it sound

he wrapped it in a sock he found

but should have trusted solid ground -

on his way home unlucky fate

smashed it like a Grecian plate.

 

The Upper Cambrian gave it birth

But Recent brought it down to earth.

 

My moral tale I now append

Do not on future years depend -

for time’s relentless progress brings

to ancient fossils as to kings

The Absolute Impermanence of Things.