Discovery of a Literary Artifact
by Mark Blaeuer
Like nothing else in Tennessee,
that jar sat for awhile.
The lid was off, though, and a bee
attracted by the physic smile
of sun on glass fell in
and drowned in the rainwater there.
Next, mold and algae, then
a buttercup. This colony of air
and nutrients and light
held out for decades. Jimmy Ray
located it last week, and he knew right
fast where to go: eBay,
the mystery—so coy—
already on a shelf in Illinois.