Starched white, bleached With Sun's burning scorch. Prone, sprawled, contorted By sinews of an age before. Stiff, brittle, still In long, lush fronds And mottled green. Grains of sand creep towards, The stricken form. The desert's bare clench takes, Inch, by inch, by inch And covers the skeletal figure, Reclaiming life, Of an age before.