I take my son to school every morning, and as he lines up outside the classroom, he is inevitably met with a chorus of roars from three little girls who have decided that they are dinosaurs. As someone who was a dinosaur fanatic as a child, this speaks directly into to my soul, and I love them all so very much. My extremely pragmatic son, on the other hand, who does not imagine himself to be anything other than what he is, responds with a sort of weary bemusement, leaning back slightly as they roar directly in his face.
With dinosaurs on the brain, I went in search of one of my favourite childhood poetry books, Jack Prelutsky’s Tyrannosaurus was a Beast, only to discover that I actually wrote about it as my very first Poetry Friday post, all the way back in 2016! I knew I’d been participating in the group on and off for a few years now, but it’s actually getting close to a decade! Life has a funny way of circling back on itself, doesn’t it?
Anyway, inspired by these three pink-clad dinosaurs (none of whom are actually named Sally, to respect the anonymity of all dinosaurs involved), I came up with this poem, which I think accurately captures their ferocious spirits.
Did you have a wild imagination as a child? I was always pretending I was something or someone from my imagination, whether a princess, a ninja turtle (everyone wanted to be Michelangelo), a kitten, or a dinosaur. The Land Before Time film came out when I was about my son’s age, so pretty much everyone in my kindergarten class was a long-neck or a three-horn dinosaur on the playground. Thankfully my son is a pretty sanguine character, and despite his confusion as the point of all this imagining, he seems to be taking his more exuberant classmates in stride.
Oh well, at least I can join in with the rest of the dinosaurs at school drop-off. I do a pretty good roar, if I do say so myself!
Tricia is hosting Poetry Friday this week at The Miss Rumphius Effect!