Matthew James Babcock

Of All Things

I learned today, this one
counts: The Allosaurus just
installed at Salt Lake International,

rugged battering-ram skull
and rollercoaster spine of fine
serrations poised ready to pounce,

causes the evolutionary crawl
of passengers to stop and gawk,
their nostrils twitching at the scent

of fresh gourmet coffee
as they slouch in prefab chairs
to watch their reflections fossilize

in glittering layers of gift shop
glass.  Are we supposed to see
ourselves aging or rampaging?

Odd rodents, fuzzy and fanged,
scurrying for survival, or ferocious rivals,
last of our kind? Prototype

or postlude? What a wonder:
to have your purest insides
reassembled, polished at the point

of the kill, set erect
to inject such primal awe
into those shopping for lasting majesty

and terror in some future
archeology.  I was just thinking
of all things I could get you,

the perfect display or gesture
in some coming age
to bring you closer

to the solemn pleasure
of getting caught beholding
in me some other species,

of letting yourself pause long enough
to leave your print in history
and smile at the puzzle of my bones.

 ***

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Matthew James Babcock: Awards include the Juxtaprose Poetry Prize, a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Award, the AML Poetry Award, the Next Generation Indie Book Award for Short Fiction, and Winner of Press 53’s Open Awards Anthology Prize for his novella, “He Wanted to be a Cartoonist for The New Yorker.” Fiction collection, Future Perfect, won the Forsberg Fiction Prize (forthcoming 2026). Was Arthur Dolsen Visiting Writer at Idaho State University (2022).