The visiting professor
Said that cryptoendoliths live in rocks

They colonize the structural cavities
Found in particularly porous types
Of rocks

And when NASA sent their Mars lander
To Antarctica
To look for life
They couldn’t find it
Because it was hiding
In rocks

You raised your hand and asked him “How?
How can they live like that?
Cut off from the sun
Cut off from the outside world
Cut off from everyone else
Living inside (and not just under)
A rock?”

Well,
Probably the same way you do