I slept and dreamt one night,
What if I travelled back in time?
All the mysteries, all those historical moments
Can all be solved and relived.
How special wouldn’t that be?
What if I travelled back in time,
And met Shakespeare, Leonardo,
Galileo Galilei and the Emperor of China?
They’d teach me a lot of things.
What if I travelled back in time
And get to play with dinosaurs,
Climb the brachiosaurus, play tag with the T-Rex
And take a ‘magic carpet ride’ with Pterosaurs?
I could also follow Christopher Columbus on his trips
And come home with some souvenirs for my friends.
I could live in every dynasty of every country,
And see the world so many years ago
The sands of time slowly carried away by the wind
Once they’ve left, it’s just a memory, etched into our minds.
What if I travelled back in time,
And change all my test answers? I’ll be the smartest boy on Earth!
It’s all too simple, because I know what’s to happen.
But all these things will happen only in my wildest dreams. They couldn’t possibly come true right?
And I just fall back asleep and wonder,
What if I could REALLY travel back in time?

I amble onto bed, so tired, so sleepy
And fall into a deep slumber.
I hear a sound, something’s moving in my room.
My back just springs upright and time seems to stop still
As my ears strain to hear the slightest,
Littlest, clue
To find who’s that,
In that blue hat,
Moving around my room?
He moves closer and closer and I **** in my breath
And shut tight my eyes, not wanting to see the rest
I feel a tug on my blankets and they’re finally pulled away,
So I am about to scream before I realise,
I hear a soft, ringing bell…
“So I hear you’ve been dreaming about travelling back in time lately. Would you like to try?”
I’m a little bit afraid,
Anxious to go time travelling at this time of night.
What if all this is just a dream?
But the blue hat man reaches out to me and touches my cold hand.
It’s real, I think.
He winks at me and tells me to get ready because we’re going
Going, going, going, going, going, going, going,
To time travel!
I shut my eyes, a little more tight
And take a deep breath
And I feel we’ve landed somewhere,
I open my eyes slowly, anxious to see
And I discover sand dunes, all around me
But that wasn’t the main attraction
I sought for.
There were Pyramids and Egyptians being treated
Like dogs by other Egyptians, smug and arrogant
And cold-hearted, in this simmering heat.
They work to bring brick by brick
To the great structures
And that’s why they stand
To this very day.
Then the blue hat guy brings me to Ancient China,
All the guys had long hair,
Braided and shiny, beautiful and neat, with so much grace and poise
In their firm steps.
The Emperor stands tall and mighty
But he’s a little strange.
He doesn’t seem to blink at all, or talk.
The only thing he does is stand there. And breathe.
Yet I feel an air of supremacy when I gaze upon his
Yellow robes, intricately embroidered with dragons,
A sign that a mastery hand, skilled with needles and threads,
Made its mark across the yellow silk
And left two intertwined dragons in a jovial dance.
The blue hat guys holds my hands again
And squeeze them hard, to tell me
We’re jumping through time, how wondrous
This act, jumping through places
Through time and space
But we’re all the same, because all these
Things, can be found on Earth
And in our hearts and memories, which will last
Through the waves of time, even if the waves always crash on the shores.

I prepared myself,
The Final Jump,
After going jumping through the time of all civilisation, also
Back to the time of the dinosaurs.
I’m going back home, my own time,
The present, where here is now and now is here.
The blue hat guy lets go of my hand and
Gives me one last wink,
“Keep on dreaming and never forget
This magical adventure that we had!”
And he just disappears.
I’m back in my own bed and comfy and warm,
Blanket pulled up to my chin and I smile
As I close my eyes, I ponder once more,
Did I just travel through time and space
With a guy in a blue hat?
Or was that just another dream I had?

My visit to Jurassic Park
What a shock

And my how those fences spark

And be careful
Of those prehistoric sharks

If you go wading in the sea
Don't expect to live past 3

And raptors roam
Across the forest floor

I wonder what else the park
Has in store?

Brachiosaurus eating leafs
From a tree

What a beautiful creature
It seems to be!

But stay away
From those long legs

They can stomp you into
The ground
Like little pegs

Well I enjoyed my trip
To Jurassic Park

I did not dare go out
In the dark

I stayed in
The park's Atomic shelter

Better than running around
That park helter-skelter

Better safe than sorry I always say
I left that park
And lived to see another day

The curves on a brachiosaurus
make Queen Latifah seem like a beach towel.
The jaws on a tyrannosaurus rex
make Jay Leno augment his chin.
The spikes on a stegosaurus
make Travis Barker shave his head.

Latifah Leno Barker
hunt for dino flesh
like aboriginals
chase mammoth with sticks
stones and fire dances.


Yeah, I'd pay to see that.

I'm glad that dinosaurs preceded mankind
On earth by millions and millions of years.
We have enough worries these days
Than to find more reasons to add to our fears.
 
Imagine walking through the forest
And meeting a Tyrannosaurus Rex!
No, tyrannosaurs were NOT
The ones with the long, slender necks.
 
The tyrannosaur was a killing machine--
A carnivore, frightening and vicious,
Possessing powerful legs and teeth.
It would find you delightfully delicious!
 
Raptors, from the Mesozoic Era,
Were also among the most feared of their day.
On each hind foot they had a large claw
For killing and disemboweling their prey.
 
Small but deadly they were, and what's more:
Their brains were of larger than average size.
A nightly stroll in a raptor area
Is NOT something that I would advise.
 
The long-necked one was the Brachiosaurus--
Not much smarter than the leaves it ate.
It measured 85 feet long
And weighed 40 tons--a LOT of weight!
 
You think, What fun: to slide down its neck!
If I were you I'd forget that idea.
If, perchance, it stomped on you,
You'd be as flat as a flour tortilla.
 
The spiked, plated dinosaur
Was the Stegosaurus--a plant-eater, too.
It didn't have a very big brain
And didn't last long. So, what's one to do?
 
There were thousands of species of dinosaurs.
We're lucky that they exist no more.
You wouldn't want to worry about danger
Every time you walked out your door.
 
But wait, that's no different from now!
Maybe one difference; let me propound it:
You wouldn't be STEPPING on dinosaur ****,
But you would be making long treks around it.

- by Bob B

My hands, smaller then, holding a ball of wet, smooth clay. Shaping it into what I thought were animals - but they all looked the same. Egg-shaped heads, dumpy legs, and fat bodies. Skewered out eyes and noses. But I loved creating these strange creatures. Once complete, they sat atop the cupboard, waiting, hoping to evolve. To solidify. To become. But they never made it to the kiln. The creatures stayed there, alone. Forgotten. Abandoned. A ghost of my childhood, one of the few joyous sparks.

I am grown now, still haunted. Still longing. But I have reclaimed the spark. There it is again. Malleable and messy. These hands, belonging to a woman now, caked with that familiar, wet slip.  My thumb presses into the ball - a pinch ***. Another. And another. And yet, another. My heart sings.

The shapes are wobbly. Tumbler cups, too small for coffee...I didn't realise they would shrink this much! There are no two alike, fingernail marks and uneven lips. But I love them - just the right size for honey wine. Dinosaur stamps — a T-rex and a Brachiosaurus. A quiet rebellion in clay, honoring the girl who shaped beasts and walked away. They stack beside the kiln now, waiting again. But this time, they are not forgotten. I see them. I made them. The fire awaits.

The girl, a phantom
I reshape her. I mold her
Coalescing, whole
The woman is set aflame
Imperfect and beautiful