Therizinosaurus

'Scythe Lizard'

Twenty eight inch claws on enormous hands
dug up from the depths of the Gobi sands.
Flat, thin, like blades swung through fields of hay,
yet the beast they belonged to had no name.

A turtle perhaps would have need of these
claws to help sate its hunger for seaweed,
such a thing never seen on the earth before,
bigger than leatherbacks laying eggs ashore.

Then the arms emerged, as long as pythons,
what beast used them was undecided on.
Such weapons swordsmiths would envy,
such a brute would cause panic on entry.

Yet its teeth held a contradiction,
they proved the creature's valediction.
Not raptor knives like most expected,
but leaf-shaped pegs had the record corrected.

The neck of a swan, with a small deer-like head,
a pot-belly with the girth of a bulkhead,
and the scythes on its hands preceded it,
shredding leaves off branches in front of it.

Such was the nature of the strangest dinosaur,
an eccentric herbivore disguised as a carnivore.

Cryogenic Foetal Lizard

One silver tadpole,
encased, embalmed,
caught mid-fall
from an oasis
in the branches.

A lizard, curled up,
almost foetal,
scales and claws
preserved, pristine,
by cryogenic sap.

A midge, taking off
from a petrified perch,
framed, glistening,
wings rendered still,
yet in permanent flight.

A red ant, crooked legs,
frozen in its prison,
a bulging abdomen,
a honeypot,
a golden bubble.

(This poem was inspired by a documentary about amber presented by Sir David Attenborough back in 2002. Check out The Amber Time Machine if you get the chance, it's really worth a watch.)