A half-buried face on an ocean floor--

predates the clumsy concealment

of horseshoe *****.

As if a canonized saint rolled out of

bed, the tide's last drop on his undecayed

tongue.

Perfectly pronounced: Tiktaalik, with the

authoritative oddity that begets name.

Not with a sonic catastrophe of bubbles,

but the clear carry of a church.

As a Tiktaalik obediently headed onshore,

his face turned to mirthful sand.