Pilosaur Speak

Skull of massive, prehistoric sea predator, 

is discovered by scientists in the UK. USA Today

It wasn't a giant dragonfly

That pinpointed my cliff-side

Resting place,

But a small drone levitating

Off Dorset's crumbly beach,

Controlled by--what to me--

Looked like a wan appetizer.

As carnivore extreme,

I swam cretaceous seas,

Devoured ichthyosaurs,

Slurped coiled ammonites,

--now iridescent gems--

My 50 foot long carcass 

At last sank to ocean floor,

Then rose with sediments

That buckled toward

A fledgling North Star;

My skull became fossil

On chalk precipice,

Embedded as beacon

For all that changes

And all that remains.

What can I as a supreme 

Killing machine now tell you?

I could say that you don't matter,

But your curiosity does

I could say your strength is laughable,

But dooms the differently strengthened

I could say your clocks are pitiful;

Time is wind eroding and reveling

I lived prior to human noise,

But now, beyond my escarpment,

There is banging, clanging, pounding,

Ringing, wailing, scraping, tapping,

Tapping,

These sounds belong to you

Laura Stickney 2023

Notes:

Pliosaur-- a giant carnivorous 

marine reptile living 200-65.5 million 

years ago

cretaceous-- geologic time, 145 - 66 million years ago

ichthyosaurs-- large, extinct marine reptiles, 250-90 million years ago

ammonites-- group of extinct marine mollusc animals

photo-- recently discovered Pliosaur skull, excavated from the

cliffs of the Jurassic Coast, Dorset, England, daily mail.co,uk