“The Last Days of the Dinosaurs”

“The Last Days of the Dinosaurs”

Kathleen Holliday
“The Last Days of the Dinosaurs”

In third grade, one afternoon,

we were ushered into the auditorium

for a 16mm animated film

about dinosaurs.

As comets and asteroids fell,

pocking the earth,

so did the huge creatures,

stumbling in their tracks,

long necks heavy.

When they hit the parched ground

I felt the vibration through

the floor, my saddle-shoed feet

hooked over the bottom

rung of the metal chair.

When the last one lay down and died,

my throat closed, my eyes filled,

someone coughed, someone giggled

a restless chittering in the dark.

The lights came on. We blinked

as black curtains swung open.

Outside, the sun glared down

over the playground.

Then we were let loose,

racing to swing on the monkey bars,

hunt each other,

punch a tethered ball

around and around.

About the Author

Kathleen Holliday

Kathleen Holliday lives on an island in the Salish Sea. Her poems have appeared in The Bellingham Review, The Blue Nib Literary Magazine, Cathexis Northwest Press, New Ohio Review, Nimrod International Journal, Poet Lore, Poetry Super Highway, SHARK REEF, The Write Launch and other journals. She is a graduate of Augsburg University, Minneapolis, MN. Her chapbooks, Putting My Ash on the Line, (2020), and Boatman, Pass By (2023), were published by Finishing Line Press.