Barnacle

Patient, they build, climbing ever higher.
Clamoring tides beset them, but they are not moved.

Grey, black, and brown,
the shade of choking dust and
drowned earth, unaffected.

Will and grasp of iron, these pervasive,
stubborn creatures
of the deep multiply with
the passing waves.

Hailing passage aboard seafaring vessels,
weathering the beating docks,
times seems their friend.

If you perchance go to visit the sea,
take a look below and you will spy this quiet dweller,
aloof and unloved, yet still growing strong.