Day Two - Ode to microbes past.

Green, orange, red the mat grew  
until it covered the continents.
Feeding off the many layers of itself.
Giving of gases poisonous to us.
But back then, 4 billion years ago, 

these were the building blocks that would become the life we know today. 
Our long forgotten great ancestor 
the mat microbial 
crafting the forerunner of the cells 
that would make all higher forms of life. 
It shines and shimmers in the sun, 

taking in the energy, 

storing it. 

The planet is made a living thing.
And visible as such to anyone observing the spectra given off.
A methane world.

You stewarded this land for two billion  laps of the sun,
before your children killed you off, 
by spewing oxygen into the air.
Preparing it for newer life, but spelling your doom.
I don't know if you ever got the thanks you deserve for kick starting life on Earth.
But hear this as a whisper of a gratitude.