Trilobite Poems (Kenneth Chris Gass)

Kenneth Chris Gass es un miembro de la Geological Society de Londres, la Paleontological Society y es licenciado en Ciencias Geológicas en la Universidad de Wisconsin. Ha descrito varias especies nuevas de trilobites de la subfamilia Encrinurinae. Además, en 1991, Gregory E. Edgecombe nombró un trilobite en su honor: Glyptambon gassi.

Pues resulta que en el año 2000 Gass escribió un libro llamado "Trilobite Poems". Según Amazon, "los poemas de K.C. Gass son dulces y fusionan fantasía y realidad. [...] El lenguaje paleontológico se convierte en el lenguaje del corazón asi como la ciencia y el arte se hacen una sola cosa en esta oda a los trilobites". Acojonante. Este librito de 21 páginas contiene siete poemitas sobre trilobites, entre los que destacan "Mackenziurus lauriae", "Mackenziurus lauriae Revisited" o "Trilobites! The Movie", que transcribo aquí:

Why don't they make a film
Of resurrected trilobites?
I don't know what they're waiting for.
This tale should be in lights.

It never has been done before.
Why can't they do it now?
It has great possibilities
And I could tell them how.

The film would have no dinosaurs.
T. rex is getting old.
No aliens or hungry sharks -
Those stories have been told.

This movie would be different.
Its villains are quite small.
They look as though they couldn't
Bother anything at all.

The first one was intriguing,
Which came as no surprise.
They watched it live and eat and grow
Before their very eyes.

Genetic engineering
Had brought the beast to life.
And when it was two inches long,
They put it to the knife.

The first thing that they noticed
Was how hard it was to kill.
They couldn't understand just why
And maybe never will.

They dissected its cephalon,
Its thorax and its tail.
And when a liquid squirted out
Their hearts began to fail.

This fluid was corrosive -
Much more so than the rest
It ate right through a thick lab coat
And burned the worker's chest.

The movies carries on with
Many ominous events.
The problems are peculiar
And they soon become intense.

For example, it is shown
That their adaptability
Is developed far beyond what
All past research could foresee.

They're amazingly prolific,
Storing eggs inside their cheeks.
A breeding pair can generate
Five million in nine weeks!

You probably have guessed by now,
Things soon get out of hand.
The trilobites are everywhere -
In seas and lakes and sand.

They're immune to our diseases
But infect us with their own.
See! A movie based on trilobites
Could chill you to the bone!