T-Rex: Haunter of Dreams

When I was young, I feared you most;

More than lava, more than ghosts.

More than vampires on the stairs

Who'd try to grab you unawares:

Kiefer and his wild eyed crew

Couldn't hold a stake to you.

*

I think it's your amount of teeth,

That frightened me beyond belief.

You used to visit in my dreams;

An apparition from our screens,

Where Harryhausen took his clay,

And shaped you real and made you sway;

A lumbering creature, piercing eyes

Tiny arms, stupendous thighs;

And yet my eyes were always drawn

To the power of your form.

You sank your teeth into my mind,

I wondered at your curious kind:

Could it be? The question vexed -

That there had been a real T-Rex?

And when I see those movies now

I wonder how I was ever cowed.

*

According to my nightly visions,

Our hayshed was a T-Rex prison

Where you would come with appetite

And try and kill us with a bite.

You'd chase us through the yellow bales,

Like Medusa with her rattling tail;

Your jaws apart, your mighty roar,

Your determined run across the floor.

The thud of outsized chicken feet

Signalled imminent defeat.

And we would dive to get away

Into cuboids of golden hay.

Your snap would miss me by an inch

And others you would gamely pinch

From where they'd bravely tried to hide

But alas! They almost always died.

Some of us were awful plucky;

Others often not so lucky.

You and the Cyclops alternated;

The models Harry had created

Stuck in my head, a nightly refrain

Eating my family again and again.

Part of me knew that you were not real

You were in my head! You'd never reveal

Yourself to me in this modern time

Other than bones in a museum line.

Imagine the fuss that you would cause

With your slavering jaws and piercing roars!

The world would almost die in fright

At the threat of your meaty might.

*

I've stood by you now, bare and white

Lit up above me, stark and bright;

Teeth on show, hollow eyes,

Presence still but no surprise.

You're awesome, standing pinned and still.

I'm glad that you can't move at will,

Despite the fact I see you're dead;

My fear still hollers in my head.

*

You no longer haunt my sleep,

Upon my family try and creep;

The farm has gone, the hay is scattered,

I don't worry about being splattered

By the jaws of a magnificent beast

Who on my bones demands to feast.

And though you're no longer alive,

You do live on in people's minds;

Jurassic Park and its dark humour

Still proposes your superior

Hunting power, running speed,

Eagerness to grab a feed.

Part of me would love to see

Your mottled flesh infront of me

More than just up on a screen

(But if I'm honest, I'm not keen.

I like the fact I have two legs,

A body still below my head).

I'd gasp and as I've often done

When nerves believe that they have won

Let out a startled burst of laughter

And be masticated shortly after.