From the Lealt Shales at Elgol

by Catharine Eunson

Yes, the fossils here are proper relics;
unlike cluttering plastics littering
the whole earth, they’re powerful, changed creatures.
These fossils are choruses fixed in stone,
are transformational, call for response,
are yet mouthfuls of undigested God.
We could venerate them primitively,
invoke disappearing constellations
of stars. But show me only one clean day
in the future, when streams run clear and fresh,
when horses turn in a patchwork of crops,
and a new culture grows us what we need:
then we can ignore these native omens,
let the rocks echo back to their witness