Dinosaur Eggs (A Poem)

By Joyce Jacobo

[Author’s Note: Dedicated to my grandparents, who both passed away during the past two years, and my mother. When my brother and I were very young, we wound up staying with our grandparents for about a year. During that time, our mother had a very special way of getting us out of the house to explore the surrounding forest.]

While living out in Michigan for a year

in the little town of West Olive

our mother would often take

my brother and I

on a prehistoric quest

“Let’s find dinosaur eggs!”

she proclaimed before helping us

to tug on sturdy shoes and hats—

and then we would venture into the forest

that surrounded our maternal grandparents’ home

Birds tweeted high in the ancient trees

squirrels skittered among the brush

and deer considered us around trunks

as dragonflies whizzed through the air—

just as they had for centuries

We never found so much as dinosaur tracks

but we did take strolls along streams

enjoyed detours to the homes of other relatives

and took shelter beneath fragrant pine trees

when caught amid light rainstorms

Then we would come home

and our mother would boil eggs

freshly gathered from the local market—

fondly remembered

many years later

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