Mammoth Find

Something fantastic was
Found under OSU—now,
In my part of the land,
OSU stands for “The”
Ohio State

Here, however, we’re
Talking about Oregon,
Where by the way members
Of my family have
Attended

Though none ten thousand
Years ago, which is the
Counting of this find—
Generally, we (and I
Mean you and me) were
Around as early wanderers

And inhabitants and so
Might have run from the
Massive body of the bones,
When enfleshed and nature-
Armed, we have now
As a mammoth—you
Know, the woolly kind

We’d have eventually
Turned and hunted down
The one in stone calcified
That we treasure now

Free away from
Primal scenes and needs
We may make friends
And maybe make amends

With its bones dryly,
Comfortably
Without tooth and claw
To rend in red our fragile
Skin

We (less bravely, perhaps)
May say:

Welcome, Ice-Age ally, to
Our better art and science

(“Nature, red in tooth and claw”—In Memoriam, Tennyson)