Analysis of QUICK FERNS

Cute little green things
Frilly, lush and verdant,
Sway ’neath the slightest breeze,
Briskly ambulating at speeds
Almost beyond watching.

Lining the forest
Even as you watch, they grow
Pushing up new life,
Plants rise from the forest floor
New growths appear in seconds.

Feathery leaves spread,
Grow brown, blacken, then collapse
All in mere minutes,
Giving out a puff of spores
“Poof’ and then they simply die.

Without animals
(Thus no faeces or decay)
The vegetation depends
Upon its own death
To bring life to its planet.

To feed so much life
(A wild sprawl of growing things
Unlike anything known),
Masses of fertiliser
Is needed for nutrients.

Quick ferns’s total life
From spore to germination
Right onto their deaths,
Is less than fifteen minutes:
Four life periods hourly.

At the summer’s end
There’s a three-metre layer
Of black material,
Rotting organic matter
That’s coating the forest floor.

By spring the black mass
Has gone, decomposed away,
Allowing quick ferns
To come to life once again
When the next summer arrives.

THE END
© Copyright 2021, Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia