Caution Thrown Away

By Zachary Sepulveda

The promise of life

In this oozing,

black morass

Is naught but a lie

A sickly sweet seduction

 

That I can never escape

The primeval cold

Eating at my weary bones

Never goes away

That deadly warm temptation

 
It beckons ever stronger

A victim-less crime

To eat what's already dead

Lying at my feet

Just a little jump across
 

That roiling promise of death

Is it worth it now?
The trial in search of warmth?
Of a full stomach?

Is what I gain worth the risk
 

Of a slow, fiery demise?
Caution thrown away
The fateful leap is taken

At first, there is warmth

And mountains of food to eat
 
Just like I had wished
But my footing slips

It's all to soon, all at once

All I had is gone
Never to be seen again
 
By the bright eyes of my kin
Eons pass me by
As my charred remains are raised
Slowly to the sun I shall be cherished by man
And my spirit lives in him

 


This vintage postcard shows a Smilodon sneaking up on a prey animal that is stuck in the tars of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, CA. This postcard is part of the Pebble Pup postcard collection. There is no copyright.

Note: the poet is experimenting with Tanka, a classical Japanese poetic form that consists of 5 lines generally following the pattern on these numbers of syllables: 5-7-5-7-7. Zach has expanded the traditional Tanka to 7 stanzas.

 

 

 

Poet’s bio: Zachary Sepulveda recently moved to the Pikes Peak region from San Diego, CA. He became interested in paleontology by visiting the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles as often as he could. He is a junior member of the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society and is part of the Pikes Peak Pebble Pups and Earth Science Scholars Program. Zach is 16 years old and is in 11th grade at Palmer Ridge High School in Monument, Colorado.