Spade into the dead dry earth
Carve out a scattered skeleton
Of some great deceased beast
Clean, inspect, assemble
The puzzling jigsaw of inferred anatomy
Publish or perish the thought
Clothe mineral mesh with imagined flesh
As those from before stripped the real for a meal
And left bitter pills for the ground to swallow.
How kind of them to anticipate scarcity
And offer means to excavate for laxity,
Never guessing that the golden age
When manna rained and plenty reigned
Was already tarnished bone-white;
And the wrongs were left
For light to right.