Until now I was never one of those kidsobsessed with dinosaurs. Scientists saywe find, with luck, maybe forty percentof a specimen’s bones and reconstructthe rest. A century of digging, entirecareers of imagining limbs and skin,diet and teeth, has recreated boneby resurrected bone an unknown species,a fearsome aquatic hunter biggerthan T. rex. I say let us all be oneof those kids in paleo-print jammieswho memorize a million made-up names.Take Saturdays to gaze at skeletonsstrung together. Study forest floors for trackspreserved by ancient mud turned stone.Every bird on its perch discloses waysthe dinosaurs never left at all, bitsof life even extinction couldn’t kill.The news offers daily apocalypse,daily strife. So nightly watch the skyand remember how much rubble there isto fall from space, its height never fatedto hold. Missiles swivel to face our homesand glaciers loose a new flood’s weight. Againstsuch days, may we all become dinosaurs.Let us love the stories our bones will tell.
The Fossil Record
Feature Date
- February 22, 2020
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Copyright © 2019 by Brian Simoneau
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Brian Simoneau is the author of the poetry collection River Bound (C&R Press, 2014). His second collection, No Small Comfort, is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press in 2021. His poems have appeared in Boston Review, Cincinnati Review, Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, Four Way Review, The Georgia Review, Mid-American Review, Salamander, Third Coast, and other journals. Originally from Lowell, Massachusetts, he lives near Boston with his family.
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