Marine Snow At Mid-Depths And Down

As you descend, slowly, falling faster past
you, this snow,
ghostly, some flakes bio-
luminescent (you plunge
and this lit snow doesn't land
at your feet but keeps falling below
you): single-cell plant chains, shreds
of zooplankton's mucus food-traps, dust motes,
fishy fecal pellets, radioactive fallout, soot,
sand grains, pollen...And inside
these jagged falling islands
live more micro-lives
which feed creatures
on the way down
and all the way down. And you, a human,
in your sinking isolation
booth, you go down, too,
through this food-snow,
these shards, blown-off
bits of planet,
its flora
and flesh, you
slip straight down, unreeled,
until the bottom's oozy silt, the sucking
baby-soft muck
welcomes you
to the deep sea's bed,
a million anvil's per square inch
pressing your skull.
How silent here, how much life,
no place deeper on earth,
nor with more width.