Rhizosalenia cretacea lies before the microscope,
like an expensive chandelier with many parts.
But more intricate.

In life this shared time with dinosaurs.
After an ancient death it settled to the deep,
to be covered by kilometers of later kin.
Finally to be exhumed by a drilling bit.

A diatom. So small, so old, so alien.
So much beauty so far from our grasp.
It exists in greater numbers than the mind can comprehend.

- Kevin McCartney