Ceramic white turns oxide red
Where mint and lemon balm once spread
The handle cracks like dried root tips
Iron blooms in fingerprint grips
Ferrum grows in concentric rings
Beneath the shade of flowering things
No kiln could fire this shade of rust
Time glazes what the fire adjusts
Rust blooms where the coffee dried
Iron petals open wide
You name each stage with botanist grace
Ferrum oxide claims its place
The workshop door stays locked for years
While mug transforms to mineral spheres
No hand to drink no lip to warm
Just weather writing chemical form
Rust blooms where the coffee dried
Iron petals open wide
You name each stage with botanist grace
Ferrum oxide claims its place
Patience measured in atomic layers
Not seasons but in corrosion players
You whisper binomial to flaking skin
Ferric oxide let bloom begin
The glaze surrenders molecule by mole
To entropy slow ceremonial role
Each chip a petal each stain a leaf
Corrosion herbarium beyond belief
Now nothing holds the shape it knew
Not clay not root not morning dew
But in the rust you recognize
Life signature in oxide guise
Rust blooms where the coffee dried
Iron petals open wide
You name each stage with botanist grace
Ferrum oxide claims its place
Rust bloom eternal uncontained
Where ceramic and iron reigned
Ferrum blooms where coffee stained
Latin names for what remained
