the walrus in the rotunda

 The Iron Age. Hesiod believed he and his contemporaries were in the Iron Age, an age of desolation, destruction and pain. Humans would fight against each other and would only care of themselves. Because of lack of shame and indignation, humankind would destroy itself, and the gods would abandon them.

In the Rotunda is a walrus skull
a fossil found in Yorkshire gravel
Its brain filled up a cavity -
size of a dog - the solid bone
for slamming others of its kind - as yard long tusks
go ripping down through wrinkled hides .
A piggy eye
surveys the heaving beach of water wives .
Those were the days of tusks - the mastodon
had tusks that raked along the earth .
The narwhal grows a tooth to needle spike
for feeling out the fractures in the ice
and then it carves a hole and breathes .
The giant cats with sabre teeth
pounce heavily on giant sloth
on plains awash with purple sage
and armadillos roll along
Like tanks
and tiny horses in uncounted herds
- defenceless - oh but they can run -
and one by one they lose their toes for speed
as they go sweeping over Oregon
Is this the Golden Age ?
 No -  that had gone
with soaring reptiles sailing skies
in ecstasies of oxygen
and iridescent dragonflies
patrolling swamps like pearly swans .
Diplodocus with grace and size
queens of the swamp with massive thighs
and mammals scurry , lurk and hide
from razor beaked pteranodon
Or in the salty Cambrian
the species-teaming sea with gentle waves
the garden of inventiveness
spread out beneath an early sun
when our first mother crawled ashore and learned to gulp in air
So long ago .
This is the Iron Age for sure .
It’s ruled by new and shiny gods
with scum of jumped-up monkeys - scampering
across the Earth
and everywhere
and tampering
with That and That and Everything
and chat chat chat chat chattering
Of This Age …  Beware
’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’          
Scarborough  December 2018