1.1 Billion Years Old Neon Pink Poem by Kimberly Burnham

A pretty pink earth
the color of a sunset
the color first made by a living thing
1.1 billion years old
the color belongs to a cyanobacteria
used in photosynthesis

found a billion years later by scientists
grinding up marine shale
dug out from the Taoudeni Basin in Mauritania
this particular batch of bacteria
died all at once and sunk down
to the seafloor
isolated from oxygen long enough to fossilize
preserved underground until about 10 years ago
when a mining company dug it up
pink
held against the sunlight
a neon pink