Uploaded April 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
3 The Ancient Forest
Holbrook, Navajo, Route 66
East bound, and Gallop just ahead,
We have a choice of Painted Desert,
Taking Petrified Forest in its stead.
The road wasn’t paved yet,
It was a dry and dusty track,
And they made you buy a ticket,
To see the forest in the back.
Something about minerals,
Seeping mud into the wood.
Several million years and counting,
Is the part I understood.
The man said it was an Ancient Forest,
Turning slowly into stone,
And it was bad luck to pick it up,
Even worse to take it home.
But in the gift shop I had questions,
About the rocks up on the shelf,
Why could I buy these rocks now,
But never pick them up myself.
It was an Ancient Ancient Forest,
Turned to stone and quite transfixed,
I wonder what it looks like now,
Between Holbrook and Navajo in 1956.
Today's prompt is "Ancient Forest" and the time my family visited the Petrified Forest in Arizona. A vivid memory for me was that it was bad luck to steal hunks of petrified wood off the ground, but it was OK to buy it off the shelf. The year was about 1956 and we were traveling on Route 66.
3 The Ancient Forest
Holbrook, Navajo, Route 66
East bound, and Gallop just ahead,
We have a choice of Painted Desert,
Taking Petrified Forest in its stead.
The road wasn’t paved yet,
It was a dry and dusty track,
And they made you buy a ticket,
To see the forest in the back.
Something about minerals,
Seeping mud into the wood.
Several million years and counting,
Is the part I understood.
The man said it was an Ancient Forest,
Turning slowly into stone,
And it was bad luck to pick it up,
Even worse to take it home.
But in the gift shop I had questions,
About the rocks up on the shelf,
Why could I buy these rocks now,
But never pick them up myself.
It was an Ancient Ancient Forest,
Turned to stone and quite transfixed,
I wonder what it looks like now,
Between Holbrook and Navajo in 1956.
Today's prompt is "Ancient Forest" and the time my family visited the Petrified Forest in Arizona. A vivid memory for me was that it was bad luck to steal hunks of petrified wood off the ground, but it was OK to buy it off the shelf. The year was about 1956 and we were traveling on Route 66.
