Paleontologist
This was written for the Read Write Poem Prompt #47: Of Monsters and Dinosaurs Enjoy.
-Nicole
————————————————-
bone upon bone
ash upon ash
dust upon dust
femurs meet like cursed wood to form a cross
death at the epicenter
frozen inside the still, lifeless ground at my feet
I can’t help but lean in for a closer look
the books
I have read
of dead men and lizards
cannot compare to the sight before my eyes
I could curl up and sleep inside the motionless skull
I’m sure this Rex was a skyscraper in his time
devouring creatures into his windowless inside existence
his stomach a machine of nutrients and death
my heart stabbed, my arm goes numb
I am alone on this stripped, earthen, bone-pregnant ground
I fall into the arms of dust
to sleep forever
where my bones collide with his
to form more crosses, bear more shame
of a life unknown and forgotten
no one waits for me on the upper layers
of continents shifting slowly across the rainbow
of millions of years, dragging ten thousand shades
of brown dirt upward to form
chocolate and caramel strata
maybe someday
they’ll dig me up too
Written 10/9/08
© 2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.
Yeah, I like that, ‘maybe someday they’ll dig me up too.’
Wow. Simple, yet profound. I love your repetition of the word “bones” and I love the flow of your poem as you used a lot of movement imagery such as digging, shifting, dragging, and forming crosses… Wow. <3
Smooth and flowy. Very well written…
Nice image at the beginning, “femurs meet like cursed wood to form a cross…”
I really like how the imagination travels here from the bones to the living thing to join with the immense time of earth and fossilization.
I can feel the narrator’s fascination here