The Sandburs Say No -- Loren Eiseley

Along the edge of the airfield between the jet blasts
from ascending bombers,
low life, the tougher
seeds from the far Cretaceous, surreptitiously tests the concrete,
with the old mindlessness
sows crevices and waits.

The blue devil's darning needles
dance their mating ecstasy across the bombing targets -
nature's archaic first streamlining,
still magnificent in a small way but useless,
the gunships deadlier, more purposeful, but

the sandburs say no, the sandburs
are older, the sandburs
toughen the seed containers, the life bombs,
against thermite, napalm, tear gas. The sandburs
like spendthrift governments pack the little brown
..........................................bullets and send them
out on each wind.

Each season they test the concrete and the bomber's targets.
The explosions are soundless but the stone fractures.
The sandburs say no with the life bombs,
The sandburs say no.