هو

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Beneath dark spathes and fantail fronds

Love was a hard striving

In those most delicate of times

When suspicions and lusts were easily aroused,

Volcanic eruptions were as common as parasites,

And patience was sought from old stories.

Under the oversized crescent moon hung sky

Hunting was hard and meat was scarce.

What scant prey there was would scamper away,

As a black marble eye scanned the horizon,

And reflected the luster of the lune lit firmament,

But love was ever yet stronger than the trial.

Below globular clusters of heavenly bodies

The horrible horny claw removed mountains,

Cast aside natural arrogance and congenital pride,

And let fall some limp carcass from its bloody maw

To share the kill with the pack,

To let them feed.

With the expenditure of that fierce strength

Came a kind of quickened instinctive knowledge

Of both annihilation and subsistence.

As the urgent reflex to gulp was killed, too,

And the young muzzles were nudged toward nourishment,

A viciously hard serenity descended upon the tyrannosaur.

They continued to hunt on strong swart legs

Pumping through marshes and across stony wastes

Until with finding, finding passed away.

-Hajj Muhammad Legenhausen

Ramadan 1422/ Adhar 1380/ December 2001