John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in
That, Dunes Review, Poetry East and North Dakota Quarterly with work
upcoming in Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, Thin Air, Dalhousie
Review and failbetter.
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FARMER AND PALEONTOLOGIST
Man’s digging for bones
in a field in a corner of Nagy’s farm.
Not the ribs of cows
poking through their leather vests
but the remains of ancient creatures.
He’s a paleontologist
not some guy who’s having a hard time
remembering the last time it rained.
But what’s Nagy to do?
This professor
is paying him good money
which is more than he can say
for his scrawny cattle.
The possibility of a wool-less
woolly mammoth
is keeping his family fed.
Life’s not working out
for those making their living off the land.
So maybe it’s the turn
buried somewhere below
where old man Nagy’s standing.
The professor’s found some kind of skull
and he’s celebrating.
Nagy learns there’s joy to be had in the dead.
But the dying’s another story.
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