The radio in my head doesn't google.

I started up the car

at our little island market.

Dropped a sack of avocados

white beans, ginger root

and tomatoes on the seat.

Almost forgot to get a bag

of Friskies original for the feral cats

who climb up to the porch

in the evening. They would not

forgive me.

The sky over the bay

was stained like amber.

As I slowly drove along

the Avenue of the Palms

listening to the radio,

some scientist on NPR

was talking about an ice-free world;

about how alligators used to live in Alaska.

He meant 70 million years ago

when the tyranosaurs were roaming

the forests of Wyoming

and Hell Creek, Montana.

Underneath the crowns

of monkey puzzle trees

and ginkgos. Dawn redwoods.

Triceratops munching ferns.

T. Rex.

A favorite monster of ten-year olds,

and a glam rock British band back in the 70's.

Big guitar lines that felt like smooth

and powerful pelvic thrusting,

oh, oh-oh. oh, oh-oh.

And it took me back to a summer carnival

in 1972. On a ride called the Hully Gully.

and the singer was crooning:

-you slide so good

with bones so fair

you've got the universe

reclining in your hair-

and I was thinking about

those dinosaurs

and the stardust in my bones.

And that other song they sang

called 20th Century Boy,

and how that fit me too

like a well-washed tee.

Summer seventy two

or was it seventy three?

I've got no way to google that

back into memory.

I can see the jolly dancing pig

on the marquee over

the entrance to the beer tent

and recall the scent of

chickens roasting on a spit.

But it's as long gone

as Gondwanaland,

the ancient continent

south of the Tethys sea.

Gondwanaland always

sounds to me like some place

in a Tarzan novel.

And I read every one of them,

more than once or twice,

blind to Edgar Rice Burroughs racism.

It was all cliffhanging chapters

that ended just before the girl

was about to have her blouse

torn open. I could almost see

the buttons pop.

I waited in the driveway

to hear the end of the scientist's story.

We are closing in on halfway

to that ice-free world

when alligators could bask

comfortably in the midnight sun

on the banks of the Yukon.

But meanwhile, here's an idea

free of charge:

blouses with buttons that pop off

and are easily snapped back on.

Betcha could make millions,

go ahead, no charge.