The valley
a sunken belly,
the ridge
a stark spine:
countless ribs
between the two
lie half-hung
or dropped entirely
because defunct
but for untold
tiny teeth
that convert
marrow and cellulose
to excretions of soil
repopulate wastelands
with wandering bands
of organisms
(recognizable
by their phalange-
seedhook-tracings)
who breed
eat
one another
into a surfeit
of exclamation-
exaggeration,
a fecund upwelling
against
a wave
of extinction.
