The Norwegian Spruce Seeds of the Svalbard Vault - Rosaleen Lynch
One of the Top 24 submissions in our 2022 Urban Tree Festival writing competition.
The Norwegian Spruce Seeds of the Svalbard Vault
I’m saving you from extinction, the seed of you for the future, hidden in this seed bank, that in time the earth may once more allow to grow. Maize and rice and wheat are all dead, but the seeds we’ve saved in this vault may be planted to feed and comfort a new mother for you, and in her you may grow, under the shade of a Norwegian spruce.
I’m your mother for now, though you’re nothing but an embryo, cells from your father and I, that I’ve frozen in time, vitrified to protect you, yes, I’ve turned you into glass, flash-frozen with liquid-nitrogen, so ice crystals can’t damage you like my hostile body, but bodies like cities fall and glass breaks and permafrost melts and you’ll no longer be preserved and no new mother will find you and bring you to life, so you’ll not exist, not be part of the regeneration of the earth, when soil is once more fertile, ready for the seed, and like the avocado, cacao and mango you may be recalcitrant, and like them you may never see the sky again, but the seeds of the Norwegian spruce will wait until the vault cracks open and will take root without the need for you or me, and without us, the earth may heal once more.
But for now you are my tiny hope, frozen with the Norwegian spruce seeds of the Svalbard Vault, for now you are our future, for now you are mine.
Rosaleen Lynch
Rosaleen is an Irish community worker and writer in the East End of London.
