Travelers Welcome

Travelers Welcome

Thursday, March 6, 2014

The fury of an amusement park T-rex

by John Roth

This dark jungle is a spread of plastic ferns
where the mesh-covered ground stinks

with wood pulp.  A rubberized dinosaur sprints
hydraulic, each mechanized limb swinging slightly

askew as its unwieldy skull cranks sideways.
What other predator has a steel-infused

skeleton and razor-sharp jaws incapable of slicing
through a single sheet of loose-leaf?  Its skin’s rugged

texture a silicone desert with coarse scales
painted in spotty camouflage.  It’s fearsome

foam claws are prone to rip and snag like a first
grader’s art project.  Even its terrible roar

is looped over and over on an outdated sound
board.  And when it strains every robotic muscle

in its body, just to conjure up a feeble half blink,
its eyelids stick together and its face freezes

into a long toothy snarl, wishing once again
to wear the living flesh of its ancestors.  

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