Like the Dinosaurs

Evening came, and never passed through
It clung to the valley like smoke
The heat settled in and no earthly wind blew
A layer of clouds swiftly broke.

People looked strange in the dim purple light
Their pallor and features were gone
They huddled on corners and waited for night
But twilight just kept holding on.

Shadows had coiled like snakes on the street
A river was ready to flood
A figure crept close, wrapped in only a sheet
Its footprints were outlined in blood.

When the mountains fell, nobody would scream
The valley was buried in earth
A slow waltz of ages moved past like a dream
A dapple of sunlight gave birth.

Caught on a Face

I am caught on a face
like a fool in the rain
In daydreams I trace
a delicate plane

Where the sky feels too near
and wind howls from afar
Where a glistening tear
burns as bright as a star

The night air blows cold
with a sparkling frost
Her cheekbones look bold
but her dark eyes are lost

As if sparked in the haze
of a glittering moon
Time explodes in a blaze
that takes her too soon

Those mountains still stand
while our lifetimes are brief
A face healing and grand
casts a shadow of grief.

Mitchel Montagna has worked as a special education teacher, radio journalist, and corporate communicator. He is married and lives in Florida, U.S.A.