You rest your broadsword on yellow tile
The last train sighs through concrete veins
Quercus robur would pause awhile
To watch the rust bloom on steel chains
Platform sentinel holds the line
Where mycorrhiza maps the dark
Your armor drinks the fluorescent brine
Chlorophyll waits for morning spark
Pteridium unfurls in trackside grime
You count the heartbeats in the rail
Dormancy keeps its own slow time
While xylem drinks the stale night air
Platform sentinel holds the line
Where mycorrhiza maps the dark
Your armor drinks the fluorescent brine
Chlorophyll waits for morning spark
The broadsword's patina copper green
Like verdigris on weathered stone
Phloem transports what stays unseen
Through cambium layers standing alone
Platform sentinel holds the line
Where mycorrhiza maps the dark
Your armor drinks the fluorescent brine
Chlorophyll waits for morning spark
Lenticel pores on steel skin breathe
You track the rats' rhizome paths below
Germination waits beneath the sheathe
Where photons never reach to grow
Stomata open at dawn's first blush
Photosynthesis claims the platform edge
Your vigil ends in mineral hush
Root and blade both hold the pledge
Sheath the sword in loam and leaf mold
The knight becomes a nurse log now
Decomposition turns to gold
Quercus sapling takes the vow
Platform sentinel holds the line
Where mycorrhiza maps the dark
Your armor drinks the fluorescent brine
Chlorophyll claims the morning spark
Steel returns to soil again
Roots remember what steel forgets
