Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Life That Could Have Been by Melissa Campana


The Life that Could Have Been

Periwinkle piled on the
Brown shag carpet.
I’d left the room
To find the can opener
Oh well, that’s not needed now.

I don’t know what I expected,
Leaving a can of paint
With a herd of tiny dinosaurs,
Which were originally calico cats
Until I fed them pasta with vinegar.

And exposed them to peacock feathers
That I found on Neptune’s moon,
Triton.
Some of the dinosaurs enjoy playing
African safari.

The purple dinosaur
Follows the birds around the yard,
Pretending to be a lion.
He has no idea how many ants he
Kills while he is out there.

The blue dinosaur, Muhammad,
Tries to bring peace on the playground.
The pterodactyl likes to pick up horseshoes
And drop them on Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s head,
I guess he is upset that his nest was shaved.

The green dinosaur always puts on my socks
And then stumbles around
Only to knock Thomas the Train off the tracks.
This isn’t a typical household
In Southern California

But I’m sure others who live along the Pacific
Have dinosaurs in their houses
Which used to be calico cats.
I just watch them from my porch
Drinking coffee.

Sometimes I set up a picnic for them
Usually they just throw grapes at me
And drink my pina colada
Then one will hijack the mystery van
And I’ll never see them again.

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