Layers

as one layer falls to the earth

another child raises her arms through

the dust towards the sun, like a flower

pushes through a layer of composted

leaves from the last generation, once

green, once bright and encouraging,

now only to feed the new life, that

child, that girl who will then reach for

 the stars, only to bow graciously in

time yielding to another layer of seed

rising to the sun, again and again

and again.