Iron oxide blooms like xerophyte
Bolts surrender to bryophyte
Rhizoids penetrate each pitted flange
Protonema maps the strange exchange
Iron moss claims the freight car's spine
Green velvet on the rusted line
Decades fold into humus time
Roots hold fast where steel resigns
Cladonia cups on rivet heads
Usnea drapes where cargo bled
Xanthoria paints the doorframes gold
Lichen scripts what years unfold
Mycelium stitches fractured seams
Nitrogen cycles through iron dreams
Carbon returns to elemental soil
Patience measures growth by spoil
Iron moss claims the freight car's spine
Green velvet on the rusted line
Decades fold into humus time
Roots hold fast where steel resigns
No schedule kept no manifest
Only wet and dry and rest
Sporophyte rises capsule-bound
Silent bells without a sound
Wheels sink deeper into loam each year
Axle trees grow through dismantled gear
Canopy closes over steel decay
Succession writes the final way
Iron moss claims the freight car's spine
Green velvet on the rusted line
Decades fold into humus time
Roots hold fast where steel resigns
Iron moss claims the freight car's spine
Velvet swallows iron whole
Time writes green on rusted scroll
