Germination

A seed swallows darkness, becomes a closed fist waiting in the soil.

The shell cracks— a whisper of breaking, the first root reaching like a blind hand toward something unnamed.

Days layer into weeks. The seedling gathers strength in its own small chamber, muscles building in the dark.

Then the thrust upward, the green spear breaching soil, unfurling into light as if the darkness had been a chrysalis all along.