THe Petrified Forest

When great dinosaurs walked
On the planet
Some 2 million long years ago
What we now see
Is a petrified forest
A realization
A show
Of treasures
And Geological splendour
A great painted desert
Where we
See petrified tree trunks
And fossil remains
And the colours
Are so beautifully
Swept up by light
And by what is
A miraculous sight for to see
Interactions of minerals
Hermetically sealed
Red hills a blue sky and the scree

Arizona can boast
Geological layers
Federal protection in place
Some of the specimens lying about
Painted by aeons of grace
They must have been some 60 metres in length
Giants searchin out the light
And now turned to stone
Layers built up on trunks
Of every conceivable tone

If we think back as mortals
Back to the time
When great trees grew out of the
Very rich slime
Great reptiliam souls
Standing tall to the sky
Whose bodies embedded in rock
Now do lie
With petrified tree trunks
All over the place
And where light and where wind
Sculptures art in our face

3785 sq miles
Of scant desert.
North of Arizona