The Jurassic Age

The dinosaur is wearing a big red tie.

It is long because it is made for an enormous animal.

The tie is pointy like a human tie and has white spots all over it.

The dinosaur refuses to call them polka dots.

He is not amphibious, but he walks through water.

He is big enough that it does not bother his legs.

All the people have to pass through the enormous lake.

Most of them are afraid of the big dinosaur with the red necktie.

Crowds of us are there now, standing with our heads barely

above the water. The dinosaur likes to eat people.

We are crossing the water and we know some of us will be eaten

by the dinosaur. The dinosaur comes out to talk to us.

To lighten the mood, he makes jokes about eating people.

He knows one man in the crowd. He says, since this guy here

is your friend, I won’t eat him.

Then he pauses and elbows the guy in the ribs

and says I’ll let you do it. Laughing, we don’t realize

that it’s only funny because a dinosaur

that eats people has made this joke. It’s only funny

because we don’t want to be the ones who get eaten.

We think that if he thinks we find him funny, he will not eat us.

But that’s not why I laugh. I laugh because the dinosaur is my

lover, and because I am proud, and will curl up against him later

in our bed made out of pond.