Reaching down arm-deep into bright water I gathered on white sand under waves Shells, drifted up on beaches where I alone Inhabit a finite world of years and days. I reached my arm down a myriad years To gather treasure from the yester-milliennial sea-floor, Held in my fingers forms shaped on the day of creation. Building their beauty in three dimensions Over which the world recedes away from us, And in the fourth, that takes away ourselves From moment to moment and from year to year From first to last they remain in their continuous present. The helix revolves like a timeless thought, Instantaneous from apex to rim Like a dance whose figure is limpet or murex, cowrie or golden winkle. They sleep on the ocean floor like humming-tops Whose music is the mother-of-pearl octave of the rainbow, Harmonious shells that whisper forever in our ears, The world that you inhabit has not yet been created.