So she grew weary, very weary, long ago
And lay down to rest on the river bank
Meaning to have a tiny nap, just long enough
To digest the crunchy bark of the drummer tree...
A lunch she did not often find in her wandering.
The child she carried in her huge womb made her
Lazy and always hungry, a burden she was not
Unhappy to carry because the mate had been
One of the larger and braver beasts in the forest
To catch his attention had been a triumph
But now, three years later, as the wooly babe
Stretched its limbs inside her the days grew long
She yearned for the birthing to begin
But then, something enormous came from the sky
And things ended, suddenly and for eons...
The weight of rocks and mountains pressed her
Crushing bones and killing the babe, snapping,
As one giant smelly breath eased from her body
And, she became, in just that second of surrender
The Waco mammoth, found by a curious digger.
No doubt her story will be told on a plaque
In the museum and plastic replicas of her will be
Sold to little boys who play with her in the back seat
Of a car...never knowing the secret in her womb...
Her love story with the forest Romeo.
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