Mother of Wings

This piece was initially about the flying mammaliform1, a lineage similar to living mammals but quite as we understand a mammal to be2. Now it's about a desire to escape from the pressures of  not being wanted.

Millions before the modern era, age of my early child I crawled under leviathans
A nocturnal dweller
A lurking time traveller staggering through history

When will we fly?


In a bowl rich with Asian grains, both in size and in kind
A Mesozoic mosaic put together in theAge of Reptiles
Now I find myself lying flat on my epitaph
Naked and exposed, just showing impressions of skin and bone

Momma your wings didn't break my fall
your gliding destination unknown

When will we fly?

Incisors erupted painfully but quite truthfully, when "rats" took to the sky
Unique occlusion fuels your delusion
A diffusion of images creates a haze
A maze for my wandering mind

Like a mortar and pestle you crushed me
Like a dinosaur steps on a mortal
Like a pest in your field of dreams

Haramiya knows not the sweetness of sour grapes
My protocones used to eating stems and pine cones
Not remarkable to hear you silent
Not a single remark as you blaze with your herbivores
My volition you cut, my wing volant no more

When will we fly?


This past Wednesday you paraded your male menagerie
In front of me evidence came to light

When will the "rats" take to flight?

Overhead I soar
While down below my arm carries needle sores, a design I adore

In pre-placental flight, on one silent night,
"Rats" will take to the sky

Ken Gerhard looks for the woman of Danang
And I wrap my fang around sugar death
The platypus chromed your family tree
In return you poached her egg
Lineage of words produced pouches of hope
The kangaroo curious questions while the possum furious,

When will we glide?

Tell about a branch no one knew before, more primitive than you or I
Surprise some swam in Jurassic jacuzzis while other scavenged your ravaged fridge
Volaticotherium a no-name with credit card debt
You oogled and googled my skinny corpse as though you hadn't eaten for awhile
Then served me bits of bone,

Flickers on a frame from another film
Our paths convergent and our roads will not cross again
It's meaning stretches from your cheek to your leg
And your tail long enough to step on,
Warm blooded in appearance but not skin deep


When will you fly?






Works Cited


1.   Zhe-Xi Luo; Qing-Jin Meng; David M. Grossnickle; Di Liu; April I. Neander; Yu-Guang Zhang;
Qiang Ji (2017). "New evidence for mammaliaform ear evolution and feeding adaptation in a Jurassic ecosystem". Nature. in press. doi:10.1038/nature23483

2.  Zimmer, C. (2017). When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Mammals Took to the Skies. New York Times. Retrieved August 9, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/science/dinosaurs-flying-mammals-squirrels.html.