#380: Barnacle Rock

Patterns from past lives

There was something living here, once.
Groups of little lives,
contained in shells, smaller
than my littlest fingernail.

Now, there are more
traces
than remnants,
footprints from the feet
of souls
long passed by.

Where did you go, little shells?
Did your souls move
on to bigger shells, leaving empty houses? Or maybe
they passed on, mixing
with the sea
leaving
only broken membranes of
white,
an open window,
yawning into the ocean.

There were lives here, once.
Now it is a rock,
fossilizing
on my windowsill,
a little ways in from the sea.

Katie writes regularly about random objects that she finds in her everyday life. If you’re interested in reading more, check out her blog Object, a collaboration with fellow Medium blogger Eleanor. You can also follow us on Twitter @ ObjectBlog.