Withering Strands

Far from the Sun
 And that frantic dash
 Billions before it,
 To Earth, had crashed
 But in this expanse
 Where huge trees unraveled
 A new plant was struggling
 Where light seldom traveled
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 This small searching stem
 Glimpsed dawn upon dawn,
 Dwarfed by gnarled limbs
 From the day it was born
 Hope given over
 To all that is brief
 Amidst the detritus,
 Dead leaf upon leaf
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 As its withering strands
 Arched back towards earth,
 Above it, a movement
 A death to bring birth
 Rays filtered, then poured
 As a forefather fell
 With the passing of giants,
 The stem could now tell
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 That life would come quickly,
 And it did, as it gorged
 Transformed by the day
 As the fueling light forged
 Fixated above,
 The sky its sole purpose,
 Its oblivious growth
 Led the insects to surface
 And small though they were,
 En masse, they had come
 To gnaw at its base
 As it reached for the Sun