Tuesday, December 27
ARTIFACT An eighth-grader in Colorado found a T-Rex tooth on a hike. It looked like a plain rock, a little shiny. After he rinsed it off he knew and emailed the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Imagine, a sixty-million-year-old tooth in the dirt of a county full of strip malls and cul-de-sacs, not even buried but right out in the open and an eighth-grade boy just walking along wearing his backpack. Is this a good time to bring up birds? How they're descended from dinosaurs. Mini, manageable monsters: beaked and clawed, scales turned to feathers and roars to song. Since kindergarten the boy practiced lockdowns, learned how to hide, play dead until it became as natural as brushing his teeth. Once in a while, the alchemy of monsters works in our favor. Once in a while there is good news. A living boy. His rare find. (Cindy Veach)