You row the hull through frozen breath
Where ancient steps mark life and death
Quercus roots grip stone below
Picea needles catch the snow
The temple wakes beneath your keel
Each footfall breaks a mineral seal
Sphagnum drinks the melting rime
Centuries dissolve in borrowed time
Rowboat counts the footsteps passing
Stone temple stirs beneath the massing
Snows recede as roots remember
You become the tall timber
Betula bark peels white and thin
You track the count from deep within
Taxus shadows guard the gate
Footsteps seal the temple's fate
The altar drinks each measured pace
Moss records the time and place
Lichen maps the foot's impression
History escapes deletion
Rowboat counts the footsteps passing
Stone temple stirs beneath the massing
Snows recede as roots remember
You become the tall timber
Fagus leaves hold winter's light
Steps echo in the buried height
Roots compute the pressure's sum
Ancient stones begin to hum
Rowboat counts the footsteps passing
Stone temple stirs beneath the massing
Snows recede as roots remember
You become the tall timber
Salix weeps in submerged soil
Footsteps cease their patient toil
Temple breathes through fractured roof
Counting ends but holds the proof
Rowboat counts the footsteps passing
Stone temple stirs beneath the massing
Snows recede as roots remember
You become the tall timber
Pinus cones release their seed
Rowboat rests from counting deed
You disembark on hallowed floor
Footsteps pulse forevermore
Rowboat counts the footsteps passing
Stone temple stirs beneath the massing
Snows recede as roots remember
You become the tall timber
Roots remember every step
You are timber deeply kept
