Tyrannosaurus S3x

Rory Hawkins

Feels like 65 million years roaming 

this grimy restroom and Jez 

still can’t hatch a line. He claws 

his head, digs dandruff scales from under 

nails and tries again, more on 

the snout: 

 

‘Hey, darl. What you use all that neck for?’ 

 

Words roil from primordial 

pickup soup and flop 

legless, Jez lungless. He pops 

another button of his palm frond shirt. 

Music erupts as another stalks

in. A hunter’s hush, this time:

 

‘Let’s make this bar prehistoric and head back to mine.’ 

 

The toilet intruder slashes 

at the far urinal, growling how a meatier 

man wiped his chances out. End of an era; 

chicks’ll love it all until 

the impact. Lizard-looking duck 

prowls out. Jez hisses vape fumes; 

old mate’s too many fossilised sentiments 

left him lurching in Valley sediments. 

You need colder blood, a pr3dator 

smile. Cuz Jez already knows 

life finds a way: 

 

‘Welcome to Jurassic C@ck.’ 

Author: Rory Hawkins is an English/Irish-grown & Meanjin/Brisbane-based Creative Writing student in his third year, aspiring to work in editing and publishing. From a little before preschool to around Year 3, he was a dinosaur kid. Then he discovered Bionicles. Now, he doesn’t have enough drawer space in his room. Find more of his prose and poetry through QUT’s Glass Magazine, previous issues of ScratchThat, read aloud with QUT Lit Salon, and occasionally on his Instagram @rory_writes_sometimes.

Artist: Emma Bruce is a multi-disciplinary visual artist from Yugambeh country working out of Meanjin. Her work discusses the relationship modern society has with the environment through an archival style in hopes to preserve the experience of being in the natural world. Her work hopes to invite her audience to partake in activities that nurture native flora and fauna as well as create a sense of pride to be part of it.

Editors: Bea Warren and Euri Glenn

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ScratchThat Magazine operates on Turrbal and Yuggera country. We pay our respects to the traditional custodians and recognise Elders past, present and emerging. These lands have always been places of teaching, learning and storytelling.

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Everybody's doing the dinosaur

 

The Dinosaur at Old Faithful by: Albert Whipple Hadley

 

The Dinosaur at Old Faithful

  by: Albert Whipple Hadley

A Dinosaur reared to his uttermost height
and stiffened his ninety-foot spine;
His tail struck an angle of fifty degrees
and he leaned on a neighboring pine.
"In the name of the dead, what can this be,"
he said, examining what he had found,
Then sniffed at a column of steam as it rose
from a curious place in the ground.
"By Golly, I've traveled this region for years,"
said he as he noticed the heat,
"But here's a sensation, surprisingly new,
and a wonderful place for a seat."
"The rank competition for food," he exclaimed,
"at the Tropics is fierce to behold;
This winter I'll tarry where feeding is good
and hang around here when it's cold."

 

Now a Dinosaur's length--say a medium length--
was a matter of ninety-odd feet,
Yet he drew his great carcass of eight or ten tons
and centered it over the heat.
Our scientists tell us this stretchy old beast
was blessed with a triplicate brain,
For relaying thoughts to his far-away skull
where "Brain Number One" did obtain.
"Number Two" was ensconsed near the base of his neck
to function, should "Number One" fail,
While "Brain Number Three" was far down the line
near the roots of his 40-foot tail.
The art of transmission of thought at that time,
was quite elemental and rough;
The system was built on the single-track plan;
one thought at a time was enough.

 

The Dinosaur soon was asleep at the switch
or rather asleep on the whole,
Dreaming only regarding the heavenly heat
that tickled the depths of his soul.
Far down in the primitive crust of the earth,
too far to express it in feet,
Was a spring of hot water, dependent we know
on a source of interior heat.
In fact it was a sort of a safety-valve vent
of the devil's invention 'twould seem,
And the janitor finding a weight on the lid,
turned on the full pressure of steam.
The Dinosaur's hide, though roughly immune
to feelings that humans acquire,
Picked up an impression through "Brain Number Three"
that part of him must be afire.

 

So out o'er the single-track system they hurried
a warning that something was wrong!
"We're sitting on something that's damnably hot;
please forward this message along!"
The warning then slowly meandered its way
down the slope of the Dinosaur's spine,
But the Grand Central Bureau at "Brain Number One"
was lost in a slumber divine.
Tradition maintains that an hour elapsed
while the devil's steam pressure increased.
When suddenly "Brain Number One" got the word
and ordered the "sitting" released.
The safety valve weighted with eight or ten tons,
was a circumstance much to be feared;
But nevertheless an explosion occured
and the Dinosaur--disappeared!

 

In spite of the bulk of the weighty old cuss
and the fact he was triplicate brained,
Except a few bones which are still to be found,
there scarcely a relic remained.
This happened some thousands of years in the past,
still since that miraculous hour,
"Old Faithful" has lifted its flood to the skies
with awful and infinite power.
The causes explaining the hourly event
no longer are locally sought--
'Twas only the Dinosaur trying that hour
to line up his system of thought.
The story, however, is hopelessly mixed,
so all that you need to retain,
Is the funny old Dinosaur plugging the vent,
and the tale of his triplicate brain.

Dada poem

No problem is that wrong with the party of Trotsky
The art of the possible exception to this rule is a great day of school girls under a state of innocence
And I am sorry for being born in the first half brother of a word or phrase that is a toddler and no play makes Jack a dull boy
To say that God is not a video game 🎮of the way to the Great Gatsby and children in the civil servants of the dinosaurs and children in a literary magazine

If you don't want to know why it isn't dark out any of the dinosaurs and children in a fantasy world,
But I am not a middle school student who is a toddler and no one can hear you think that you can understand the importance of having trouble with the Bible?
And we should take down graffiti for the same reason that they are not adults and children in the civil war?
Dada and children are not married to a beheading of a function of this generation and children to the Great Beyond that they are Sandworms doing good to have meaning of the dinosaurs and children

And I have a crush on you all!
The election of the dinosaurs and children to get sick of the dinosaurs and children and children in the civil war?
And the t-shirt challenge is to be treated as such a beautiful child and children in the United nations
If you don't want to know why it isn't dark and children in a fantasy football league of the dinosaurs and no one can hear you scream at the dinosaurs

dinosaur time

time force