Imagine a World - Song

A giant mural, on display at the Keystone Gallery north of Scott City, Kansas, depicting the area as it was in the Cretaceous (Illustrated by Chuck Bonner, photo by Juan-Pablo Pina)

by Juan-Pablo Pina

Imagine a world, an ancient sea

Where creatures swam is now prairie.

Reptiles in the air and birds with teeth,

Giant swimming lizards, sharks lurking underneath.

Prehistoric animals to blow your mind,

Swordfish and sailfish and all other kinds.

Flying pterodactyls and turtles abound.

The diversity of life can be found all around.

We’re on the rolling prairie, now a sea of grass,

Once an open waterway in the distant past.

The earth is everchanging … we may need to swim again;

Now we’re just trying to adapt to the world we’re living in.

Delicate sea lilies and giant clams,

Huge filter-feeding fish eating what they can.

Ammonites and squids, swimming in the sea

The hunters become hunted, and then they have to flee.

This body of water, teeming with life,

So thick with living beings you can cut it with a knife.

They sink to the silty bottom, forever there entombed

Until they are discovered and hung up in a room.

We’re on the rolling prairie, now a sea of grass,

Once an open waterway in the distant past.

The earth is ever-changing… we may need to swim again;

Now we’re just trying to adapt to the world we’re living in.