The Coal Forests

Away in the dim vistas of geology the great coal forests grew
throbbing and humming with drowsy life
creeping and writhing and thrusting out of the steamy gloom of the undergrowth
clutching with greedy fingers at the light.
Gigantic towering horsetails flung their woody, jointed arms in pride
of strength and joy of life above
the sinuous monstrous mosses, green and jewelled and glistening, that swayed like giant cobras to the charmer's flute.
With stealthy sound, like dripping rain that patters from a soaking bough
upon the earth beneath, lithe lizards
climbed the succulent trunks of the feathery tree-moss, Sigilaria.
Tree-ferns, huge and stiff and sombre green,
hung nodding, bending slumberously over the stagnant lake
whose viscous water lapped the shores
of shining, purpled, oozy mud, and lustrous pulpy vegetation.
Naught was heard but dribbling, dripping moisture
and the endless droning monotone of strange primaeval flies.