Poetry: In dubious praise of a dinosaur at breakfast

"There is the same amount of water on earth today as there was when earth was formed ... the hydrologic cycle refers to the continuous exchange of water through evaporation, precipitation and runoff." — Lennach

It's hard to think that droughts exist
when streams and rivers flood our springs
and men and women, boys and girls
pile bags of sand to save their things,
when old men soak their bones in spas
in Tokyo, in Osaka,
or priests dip children
into water, thrice,
or when the sun
makes water out of ice
that floods the fields,
the hills, the woods,
when rain turns
tiny seeds to foods
when glacier melts
make veldts,

but it's even harder to believe
T-Rex's gush of yellow pee
provides my morning cup of tea,
and yet I drink it willingly.
So I salute you, scaly one,
may mine be such sustaining juice
as yours that added to earth's sluice.
I thank you for your gift to me —
these cups of sweet, recycled tea.

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Grayce Scholt is a retired English professor from Mott College who wrote art reviews for the Flint Journal. Her book of poetry, Bang! Go All the Porch Swings, is available online from Amazon and from Pages Bookstore in downtown Flint. A personal narrative of the poet's life in Europe in the early 1950s, Vienna, Only You, is available from the author at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .