Fossil Find
    Interstate 5, Lost Hills, CA

Southbound, surrounded 
by exotic bires far from water —
     red-naped, purple-
     headed, green-backed

plunging their identical
curved beaks earthward,
     pecking
     probing

ceaselessly for some
viscous substance not
     visible for mere
     mankind

its barreled
value
     calculable
     negotiable

ferric pterodactyls
rusting in place until
     they crumble
     beneath

an embered sun.