One Day

The reservoir hiding
The bones of the dragon
Was younger than the bones.

The bones were older than
The meadow that had been
Before the reservoir,

Older than the people
Who cleared the old forest
And settled the meadow,

Older than the forest
That grew after the ice
That crushed older forests,

That grew after older
Ice had crushed earlier
Forests, older than names

For monsters like dragons,
Older than any words,
Older than the first ice

Sheets that started crushing
Whatever grew on land,
Older than the dry land.

The dragon lived in seas
So long ago there were
No bone worms where it fell,

And so it remained
Once the bacteria
Had carefully cleaned it,

A long chain of fine bones.
You drained the reservoir
One day, and you found it.