The Museum

Down a musty hallway
Towards a dignified catacomb
I walked slowly, halfway,
I stopped, turned, looked
Encapsulated in a glass display
It stood motionless, staring at me.
A golden brown strand of hay.

Buried, that season’s crop.
Three thousand years ago.
When the volcano blew its top.
Along with the farmer and a hoe.
Happened so quickly, he couldn’t stop.

Then to my immediate right.
Was a half wrapped mummified man.
To the untrained, what… a … sight!
There ugly stood as boldly as ugly could.
Displaying an air of mortal plight!
A guaranteed future of no return.
A ‘danse de macabre’ under the light.

In his world he was a king.
A man of power status and wealth.
His magicians, physicians and oracles would sing
All predicting great fortune and perpetual wealth.
Soaring on destiny’s grand wing.
I shivered, then moved along, next,
Was a wall mounted fragment?
Of papyrus containing two lines of text.
Whose origins remain unknown,
Its incognito phrases and context,
Artfully crafted and neatly outlaid,
Eludes every know cipher and cryptic index.

I suppose that man has forever lost
A great number of tongues,
One of war and turmoil’s ultimate cost.
Extinct due to yesterday’s wrongs,
Into oblivion, our very history we’ve tossed.

Again I strolled, after a heavy sigh!
Though just quickly captivated.
By a glimmer that caught my eye.
‘T was a diamond, maybe the largest ever created,
Found in a river ‘t has long run dry.
Sat it in a frame, I think chrome plated.
Seems a million carats, believe me! No lie!

Found by a slave gathering pebbles
Smuggled by his wife across the misty valleys
Before long word of its existence got to the rebels
Who canvassed thoroughfares and alleys.
Like the soul searching of devils.

Still I made my way, approaching the end
Where the hallway opened up to the world of giants
Humongous skeletons, ‘tis hard to comprehend.
The Jurassic world of dinosaurs.
A sight, awe inspiring, I’m sure to recommend.
Bring the kids for a visit.
It shall surely be a most memorable weekend.

How did the Brontosaurus grow to such a size?
Or the Megaladon’s jaw open so wide?
Bigger than a basketball hoop the socket of its eyes.
Are they still considered a predator? When the prey cannot hide?
I wonder what sounds they made. What were their cries?