Coral

Coral is colonial:

its home is in the stone.

The strong pink communities

secrete rock-like scaffolding,

the skeletons of reefs. Marine ridges

resist, the jointed bones

of coral will not erode away until

men in motor boats skim

the water's surface, searching

for the red jewel.

Reaching their fossil

fingers down they think,

if you only have one rock

there are better things to do

with it than make a home.