The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: A Poem Review

Bremer Acosta

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May 27, 2023

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At the end
of the
Cretaceous
Period,
an asteroid,
seven
miles
wide,
ripped
through
the black
expanse of
outer space

After
traveling
millions
of miles,
after following
the orbits of
greater masses,
after collisions
with other
pockmarked
rocks,
there
was a
pull
toward
Earth

The
asteroid’s
impact
off the coast of
the Yucatán
blotted out
the
horizon,
smothering
dinosaur
eggs into
ash,
rippling
heat
through
the land
and the
oceans

Tsunamis
flooded
over
smoke
and
bones,
acid rain
seeped
into the
curled up
rot of
giant
reptiles,
and
fungi
filled the
sooted
ground

Thousands
of years
after the fifth
mass extinction,
after
seventy-five
percent
of all known
species
perished,
ferns spread
their spores
far
and
mammals
scurried
out,
sniffing
the low
light of
dawn