Marching, marching

[Note: This poem references the children's song "We Are the Dinosaurs" by The Laurie Berkner Band. Whether you listen to the song before or while you read the poem, or not at all, is up to you.]

~

We are the dinosaurs

I glance at you in my rear view mirror

Buckled into your safety seat

Scrunched against the window

As if ready to leap out

As if looking for a way out

Marching, marching

That T-Rex you clutch

Bobs ever so slightly

To your favorite song

And your feet

Twitch to the beat

Always marching, marching

We make the earth flat

Stomp or be stomped

We make the earth flat

That's the rules of your world

All teeth and fists

And fearful roars

From the time you were hatched

And even now,

In my home and heart,

With all our gentle roundness,

You keep falling over the edge

We stop and eat our food, When we're in the mood

Bag of chips in your sock drawer

Granola bars under your blanket

I leave it where I find it

Understanding

Giant beasts fed their appetites

Of all kinds

While you went hungry

For everything

So even with full belly

You forage like prey

When we're in the mood

You learned when to run,

When to creep and hide

And if they smiled their toothy smile

You smiled back

But only on the outside

Inside is your private jungle

Where all lose their way

We stop and take a rest, Over in our nest

I dread bedtime

Bedtimes are a war

You not go gently into that good night

Nightmares swallow you whole

And spit out your bones with a roar

I rush in at your cry,

Gather up your fragments

And hold you, hold you tight

Like you hold your Rex

We stop and take a rest

But on these weekly drives

With farmland flicking past

Your head might slump to the side

Your grip on Rex might loosen

And in the rear view mirror

I finally glimpse

You at peace

Over in our nest

I've learned not to turn off the song

Silence rings your alarms

And shakes you awake

You find comfort in the loop,

Knowing what comes next

Every ending

Handing off to a familiar beginning

Dinosaurs in an unending line

Every week, for 24 miles

We are the dinosaurs, marching, marching

From home to family visitation,

And back again

Stomping a groove in my brain,

Marching, marching with you

Through your thunder-lizard world

Hoping, hoping we find our way out

Whaddya think of that?

I think,

He's loud.

He's defiant.

He's destructive.

He doesn't care

Or at least you say you don't care

But I think I don't believe it

As you grew, too few gave you a care

Or gave you a thought

No one asked what you thought

And now we're afraid to ask

Careful not to trigger you with truth

Thinking can be dangerous

Caring even more so

And then we roar!

That's your favorite part of the song,

Right at the end

(So we have to finish the song,

Even if our trip ends in the middle)

You hold Rex aloft

With both hands

Raise your head

Raise your voice

And join in the Roar!

Fearlessly

Ferociously

With a bit of a growl

And I could be wrong,

But it sounds to me

Like joy

And then we roar!

Makes me smile every time

Especially when

You wave me in and

We raise our voices

Wildly, together

Roar!

Roar!

'Cause we are the dinosaurs!

///

The characters and situations depicted in this piece are fictional, though grounded in real relationships and experiences. Including having "We Are The Dinosaurs" (by The Laurie Berkner Band) stuck in my brain after countless times hearing it in the car: