poem of the day 06.20.09

dinosaurs

“what do you think about this new machine
that you can read books on?” he asks me.

“not much,” i say.

“yeah, me neither. i still like to read books.”

“when they’re good, i like to read books too.”

“i’ll bet you don’t have one of them iphones
or ipods or whatever you call them things.”

“i don’t,” i say. “i’m sticking with cds.”

“i heard the sounds is bad on those ipods, like it jumbles
up the music.”

“you can’t listen to jazz on them.”

“you like jazz?”

“some jazz. but i heard those ipods just compress the sound
and make the music sound like shit.”

“you can’t listen to jazz if it sounds like shit,” he says.

“most people do.”

“most people just don’t know,” he says
then he tugs at a leather pouch on his belt, and says
“man, i hate this too.” he pulls out his cell phone
“but i need it for work in case the boss calls.”

“the phone was created by a very lonely and sad
person,” i say “i don’t pick up mine if i can
get away with it.”

he shakes his head and smiles at me. “we must be
the last ones.”

“probably.”

“you and me. we’re the last ones
who haven’t bought into all of this.”

“we’re in good company,” i say.

“a couple of dinosaurs,” he says, before shaking my hand.

“yes, we’re probably a couple of dinosaurs
and one day we’ll be mashed down into nothing but oil.”

“now that’s something that hasn’t gone out of style
yet,” he says.

“and it never will.”

then he winks and walks away
and i think, now there goes a guy i could probably
put up with for a little bit longer than most.
then i flip my tail, scratch my horns
and rub my scales off a tree
before i keep on in search of the smell
of fresh meat
blanketing this old landscape.