The roots of man go so deep
Some little rodent perhaps
Thoroughly relieved the dinosaurs
Are at last all gone.
And here and now
Always a mid point between past and future
The future likewise unforeseeable
Other than a vague sense of continuity.
From that future
A hundred million years from now
This past I sit in
Will be as unknown and unrecognizable
As my little mammalian ancestor’s.
Does this make it all meaningless?
Hell no!
It makes each step and stage
Miraculous.
(8/11/26)
"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, "I'm possible!" ~ Audrey Hepburn
Two powerful words both very shockable.
"You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." ~ Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus opened wide the door,
to see and hear the ocean roar.
"Life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent of how I react to it." ~ Charles Swindoll
In life I will not quit,
for God gave me the wit.
"If the wind will not serve, take the oars" ~ Latin Proverb
Will the wind open the doors?
Maybe showing sea dinosaurs.
"Fall seven times and stand up eight" ~ old proverb
What will be my fate?
Getting back up will make me great.
Each one here has a different meaning,
some from life and some from dreaming.
I see out there, besides the pond,
a quartet of Canada geese,
picking through the manicured lawn,
hunting for some insects to eat.
Two adults and two little ones,
necks outstretched and probing the ground,
something about the silhouettes
just seems to tear the eons down…
I know that birds are therapods,
but when that long neck ducks I see
the outline of a Brontosaur,
albeit one that stands two feet…
And when it’s walking straight at me,
the head and neck up towards the sky,
it looks just like a sauropod,
at least until it starts to fly.
A weird thought, given on most days
they paddle around in the drink,
but change the place and back in time
the whole animal seems to sink.
Perhaps that’s why they’re ill-tempered,
hissing at you like a sinner,
since once they used to rule this earth,
but now they’re just Christmas dinner…
I've searched my 'puter from Adasaurus
All the way through to Zapalasaurus
But bless my dear old soul
The more I search and scroll
I've yet to find one named a Thesaurus
Early morning and the gantry cranes
at Webb Dock look like long necked
dinosaurs lining up to drink from the river -
and the sky is aglow as it might have been
when tinged by the first hint of that asteroid
slamming into Yucatan on the other side
of the world 66 million years ago.
This is 2025 and no asteroid threatens
our fragile planet, yet more subtle
things do - things that reside in the dark
precincts of the human soul that pour
out pollution and in silos and undersea,
stoke embers that could at anytime
break free and incinerate us all.
In modern day times since twenty-fifteen
Fifty new species of dinosaurs have been seen
Because new places are being rapidly excavated
Excitement generated cannot be overstated
scientists announce that one species of today derived from dinosaurs
I am trying to guess which one
snakes?
alligators?
crocodiles?
rhinos?
hippopotamuses?
the answer is birds.
If you have ever seen a crane with a giant wing span
you would fully understand this.
When it flies it looks like a pterodactyl.
Why should I believe in dinosaurs
'cos of reconstructions of bones?
I prefer to believe in God Almighty
though I don't know when He's home
All dinosaurs died
mystery never solved
only footprints shown
In a sketch made doubly distinct
I have seen The Great Monster inked
By a lover of The Extinct,
Who noticing my interest winked
Dinosaurs that killed on instinct:
The Alive soon dead before one blinked
Some hopes he'd via bringing them back?
Then, Lions would their actions slack!
God had quilted them for Lion;
Their bones had been complete iron
They'd been linked with The Jurassic
A time to not withhold classic
Yet mainly in monstrosity
An increase in adversity
If one was stormed by Dinosaurs
Straight to grave no preceding sores:
Fresh bleeding wounds of crumpled corpse
Their eyes alone would disarm cops.
Watching JJ Play with Dinosaurs
David J Walker
The flying reptiles frighten me
What if they come back
What if they attack
What if a stolen egg escalates
Into another annihilation
The plying reptiles fascinate me
What if feathers are lost
What if we ignore the cost
And act in fits of passion
What if their leathered skin
Becomes stylish
Again
What if we killed them all
For fall
fashion
He does not notice the grimaces on his classmates' faces.
Or hear their deep sighs, or realize he is fixated on dinosaurs.
His discussions are one-sided, he does not need peers at all.
He does not know that his constant blathering is bothering them.
It is not what they want to hear over the teacher.
He lives in a world within their world, a natural, loving place.
A place where pterodactyls, T-rex, and stegosauruses roam.
He cares not for social cues or for annoyed looks or for classmates.
He speaks in a monotone and expects no response.
Living in his own nature bowl of a classroom within a classroom.
A loud noise brings his face up, but he quickly looks back down.
He is interested in the noise about as long as he is interested in others.
A second; two seconds at tops.
He returns to his preferred world.
Where dinosaurs help him cope with the rest of his life.
Maybe dinosaurs existed in the old days or maybe they did not
an andrewsarchus, was a large-snouted predator I am told,
may I be so bold to say, I never met one anyway, so I think not
I heard of prehistoric pigs named Entelodons, perhaps its true
perhaps they died by climate change, perhaps they were shot
they said giant armadillos lived,... in that epoch that was true
There were glytodons that ate grass and plants by waters edge
heavily armored so they say, but not one fossil I did find
they used their tail to smack and kill, oh I'm sure they had the edge
I heard there was a Dinosaur named Dino but he wasn't rusty red
he belonged to Fred Flintstone and he wasn't all that mean
he was a male Snorkasaurus and yes he was well read
Maybe there were dinosaurs, but maybe there were not !
Distant Cousins
David J Walker
You may not remember
the dinosaurs
Roaming our backyard
Jurassic park
Hiding in lilacs
Crushing the petunias and
Easting the tops off our trees
Mother, not pleased,
was mad while
Dad was glad to not have to
Mow the grass ever again
Brother was older and had to
Scoop the dinosaur poop
Into a very big baggie
Sister was crying because
there were no flying unicorns
in the herd
Do you believe what you’ve heard
that dinosaurs
And birds are distant cousins?
Three dinosaurs – big, and small, and medium
Went to the park to play, with their mom.
Mommy told them to follow the rules,
No fuss, whatever fun game their plan is!
As usual, the medium one wasn’t happy,
He had to wait for his turn – he was grumpy.
The little one goes up and down the slide,
The gentle eldest never fails to guide.
Swing and slide, water and mud,
Oh My! Little dinosaurs had all kinds of fun!
Let’s go home now – mommy says,
Tummy growling, yummy lunch waits.
April 20, 2021
FIRST PLACE
Nursery Rhyme 5 Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Eve Roper
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