Extinction Level Event

Dinosaurs once ruled the land long before we had our say,
but for those doomed dinosaurs there was one last perfect day.
For there was an asteroid cleaved of time in big bang birth,
drifting for millennia, but now headed straight for Earth.

There were creatures in their caves as the dinosaurs roamed free;
some would manage to survive this oncoming tragedy.
Just before the blast occurred the stillness was far and wide,
but it just distorts the day when the mounts of space collide.

  (It is not speculation--dinosaurs for eons reigned;
  then they were extinguished quick--as to why, it was not plain.
  Now there is a smoking gun--the impact crater has been found;
  down around the Yucatan--evidence within the ground.)

  (It remains a rounded scar left on Earth so long ago,
  and the scale of measurement pales beyond a vast plateau.
  But with satellites on high sending their telemetry,
  ancient impact can be seen, much of it within the sea.)

Brontosaurus chewed thick leaves, Allosaurus ripped through meat;
Pterodactyl soared the air, Hadrosaurus trod clawed feet.
The Tyrannosaurus stalked through savanna’s lush terrain;
Stegosaurus may have raged if it had a bigger brain.

Soon the devastation came to the world that they did know;
it was hypersonic speed, setting atmosphere aglow.
Friction heated up the air--it was thousands of degrees;
when the fire is the sky, all life-giving air just flees.

But the impact then took place and destruction then let go;
Hiroshima by its side would have been a candle glow.
Hell of fire, smoke and heat, supersonic blast of breeze;
tons of earth sent to the sky, instant ash of once tall trees.

It may not have been this bad at the start for everything;
(on the other side of Earth they no doubt felt not that sting.)
But it did not matter much, for most life was doomed to die,
as all light was soon blocked out from debris blown in the sky.

Such an impact is quite rare, measured by those million years;
but the watchers of the skies keep on guard for deep space peers.
Each and every day the Earth feels the sting of rocky rain,
yet when it is miles wide, it is a worldwide bloodstain.

Dinosaurs termed terrible, although some were rather tame;
many million years ago their extinction quickly came.
They had not the intellect nor the sense to get along,
yet I wonder when they sensed something terrible was wrong.


[Rhythm: 14] (Lines: 40)
Writer’s Cramp; November 14, 2011