Rainforest Ferns

Leaves of the coral fern: knotty conundrums
that straighten to lines of dot matrix.
Intricate as a rune, a tree fern's infolded
wings inside their bronze membrane.
Everywhere, bishop's crooks, scrolls,
through the cathedral-dim forest.
Enmeshed in lushness, or held by survival's
thread, they unfurl on tides of air.
Along the rockface, ferns trace the curve
of vanished seas. I peer upwards
as a drop falls, then a leaf. In decay,
copper discs harden, mocha invades lime.
Mature ferns hover in their long moment,
luminously fresh, starred with twilight.