Fingering Piles of Gravel for Fossils

Children are still at the shore

Of the lake too deep for them

To swim, digging for beach glass

And chattering happily

About their small finds instead.

Yesterday, an intrepid

Young man hiked in brutal

Sun over Utah’s salt flats

Until he found a plunge hole

And dug down to get his prize,

A hunk of meteorite

Fresh from the sky, fusion crust

Still smooth and not yet rusted,

A rock in your hand that was

Literally in space ten

Days ago, likely as old

As the whole solar system.

The Webb Telescope now sees,

Among 5,000 planets

Identified to sift through,

One with carbon dioxide,

First with carbon dioxide,

Someone’s quick to emphasize,

Happily. There will be more.