The Trilobite’s eyes were chipped calcite marvels

that had a million years of ocular dominance

and then vanished in a blink.
Before the plexus of nerves, there were first

lapidary conjunctions of a thousand eyes,

polished and re-faceted to new spectra.
When the silt of the old oceans

was churned over the last of these lions,

what light was caught in the cold amber earth?
What light was pressed on the lens of each stone

that is forever lost?

The visions and the miracles and the first black wave.