" I still think there should be a dinosaur named Thesaurus."
- Astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson, on Twitter
Thesaurus Rex, his satchel full of books,
on Earth yet roams.
Endangered but not yet extinct, his shtick is
acrostics, palindromes.
Morning, night and noon, the king of words
ingests his paleo forage
His pal Dicteratops slurps steaming bowls
of syntax like hot porridge.
Syllabasaurus pairs Norse pie and ginko broth
with Anglo-Saxon ale;
Thesaurus Rex prefers a lizard fricassee,
beer dark or pale.
Some think Thesaurus Rex should be extinct.
What teacher advocates
study of Latin roots or Greek? Great T. Rex
digs in fields of cognates,
multi-lingual crops, unfenced, available
from A to Z,
for those who love his book. The young today
consider him debris,
and turn to on-line files, search engines. Loyal
Roget feeds him still,
corrects him, keeps old Rex alive. Not a fossil
yet. Not in landfill.
His heart beats on, wedged in reference shelves.
Google him, but be
prepared – he’s really not the same. Computer
shy, he may not see
your tweet or post. Thesaurus masticates
small words in blissful quiet −
may someday try digesting Twitter food
so rampant in our diet.