Discovery of a Literary Artifact

by Mark Blaeuer

Like nothing else in Tennessee,
that jar sat for awhile.
The lid was off, though, and a bee
attracted by the physic smile

of sun on glass fell in
and drowned in the rainwater there.
Next, mold and algae, then
a buttercup. This colony of air

and nutrients and light
held out for decades. Jimmy Ray
located it last week, and he knew right
fast where to go: eBay,

the mystery—so coy—
already on a shelf in Illinois.