Cameo Dream State
A soldier ankle-deep in delta mud,
stares at a woman’s profile, her cameo
carved on the back of his Rolex.
Outbound currents reshuffle
diamond-winking gulf waves.
Passing clouds turn the sea salt-white.
A pod of bottlenose dolphins
spinning stories of the ancient
landmass of Laramidia swap
short-lived tales with island-bound
Komodo Dragons. The reptiles’ claws
dig up fossil-rich wetlands, resurrect
stone-turned bones and mottled leather
of Parasaurus, Kosmoceratops, Velociraptor
—last dragons wrapping serrated teeth
into the lost fat of ancestors. The wave-feathered
night-gulf becomes quiet, unsinkable
India ink. The face on the watch-cameo
smolders, a le coup de foudre occurs, the soldier
falls suddenly in love again.
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Author’s Note: Laramidia was an island-continent that existed during
the Late Cretaceous period. The area is rich in dinosaur fossils.
Editor’s Note: “The common French idiomatic expression le coup de foudre, pronounced coo d(eu) foodr(eu), is a common weather term for extreme mauvais temps (“bad weather”): a bolt or flash of lightning, or a thunderbolt. But, as you might expect, since French is the language of love, le coup de foudre also has a figurative meaning that is well known to French-speaking natives: “love at first sight,” which delivers a kind of shock, too. The figurative meaning is a bit more common in French [ThoughtCo].
Image credit: The dinosaur and damsel (wallpapertag.com) perhaps captures the duality of images and emotion in the poem. Here is more information on Larimidia.
- Cameo Dream State by Dennis Maulsby - February 17, 2021