The oldest rock is not omniscient,

but he’s witnessed Earth deal a new lineup of cards

each day the last four billion years. 

He’s watched flora and fauna 

ravage each other into extinction while

updating the list of species crowned ‘champion’. 

When I was seventeen I told

my ex girlfriend she was radiant:

not because her cheeks were embers

but because her laughter unearthed Argon from her esophagus.

I held out Potassium 40 and I welcomed

decay just to relish in the chemical reaction.

Radioactive dating is an inverse relationship:

I swallowed her half lives. Argon crystallized 

but had nothing left to bind to, then detached.

The oldest rock is not omniscient,

but he’s married to Earth’s entropy. He told me

to forget what I knew of chemistry.