I catalog the captain's logs today
Quercus robur filed away
Salt crust dissolves in archival air
Latitude logged with clinical care
Pressed between pages the sea forgets its name
Roots hold fast where the anchor came
Taxonomy saves what the tide erases
Herbarium hearts in acid-free cases
Sextant rusts in a mylar sleeve
Pinus ponderosa believes
In classification order restored
No storm survives the written word
Pressed between pages the sea forgets its name
Roots hold fast where the anchor came
Taxonomy saves what the tide erases
Herbarium hearts in acid-free cases
Call slip pulls up the midnight watch
Salix babylonica guards the catch
Tide tables pressed in herbarium sheets
Where longitude and latitude meet
Pressed between pages the sea forgets its name
Roots hold fast where the anchor came
Taxonomy saves what the tide erases
Herbarium hearts in acid-free cases
Dormancy breaks in reading room light
Specimens wake from decades' night
The sailor studies his own pressed past
Growth rings visible at last
Accession number tattoos my wrist
Fucus vesiculosus in the mist
I read the sea in Latin now
No compass needed only how
Pressed between pages the sea forgets its name
Roots hold fast where the anchor came
Taxonomy saves what the tide erases
Herbarium hearts in acid-free cases
Pressed between pages we're all the same
Pressed between pages we're all the same
Footsteps settle the catalog closes
Quercus robur the sea composes
