On Rosemary Being Momentarily Cast Back In Time

Rosemary, who an eye-blink before
had been filing canceled checks
for a foot-care firm in Chicago,
blinked and found herself tangled
in a rain forest’s tropical undergrowth
high on a primeval plateau
deep in the Peruvian Andes.

She stood and brushed off a centipede
that waved orangely away.
Her hair curled at her cheek
like essence of panther. She turned
in place, searching for a clearing,
but saw only vine and branch
and twisted, moss-covered timber.

She took a breath and a step
determined at least to see
a good old thunder lizard or three
or some crazy killer tree.
But she only had time for a step
before she glittered and disappeared.

Rosemary, who an eye-blink before
had been hunting dinosaurs in Peru,
blinked and found herself filing
canceled checks in Chicago.
“Bill, I’m going on break,”
she said to her boss. He nodded.
Then she saw something glitter near the floor.

Smiling, she knelt to watch the temporal display
of a badly timed centipede waving orangely away.