Here it is… Katherine Howard’s take on the classic poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas”.  She read it at the ESCONI Holiday Party and at the December 2024 General Meeting. Thanks for sharing, Katherine!

ESCONI 2024 by Katherine Howard

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the quarry
Not a member was stirring, as John told his story;
The chisels were placed by the hammers with care,
In hopes that fossils the rocks would soon bare;
The members were nestled all snug in their beds,
While zoom presentations danced in their heads;
And Rose in her ’kerchief, and Andy in his cap,
Had just settled their brains for John’s long rap,
When out from the internet there arose such a clatter,
Rich sprang to his console to see what was the matter.
Over his keyboard his fingers like a flash,
Raced through the login and password with a dash.
The moon on the crest of the new sediment below
Revealed dozens of concretions that made eyes glow,
Then, what to our flickering screens should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a laugh and a grin, he came with a surge,
I knew in a moment it must be Chris Berg
More rapid than raptors his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
“Now, Connor! now, Irene! now, Jeremy and Don!
On, Dave! on, Keith! on, Valerie and Phil Anderson!
To the top of the hill! to the top of the wall!
Now dig away! dig away! dig away all!”
As shovels of dirt from past eons did fly,
Visions of triceratops, or pterodactyls in the sky;
So down to the limestone and dolomite dirt flew,
With gloved hands, the trowels, and even sifters too.
And then, in a twinkling, grasped in each hand
Trilobites, ammonites, Katherine happy with sand.
As Chris Cozart inventoried all they had found,
Into the quarry a T-Rex came with a bound.
It was covered all in feathers, from its head to its foot,
And the red feathers were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of dinosaurs it had flung on its back,
And it looked like it was preparing to snack.
Its claws how they clicked – its eyes how they squinted!
Its jaw opened wider, its teeth how they glistened!
Its tiny front legs were drawn up in a curl
And our breath we all held, dust still all a swirl;
The stump of a leg it held tight in its teeth,
And the black flies encircled its head like a wreath.
It had a broad head and a long barreled belly,
The earth shook when it roared, like a bowlful of jelly.
It was massive and bloody, not an old bone on a shelf,
And we gawked when we saw it, in spite of ourself;
A blink of its eye and a twist of its head,
Somehow we knew, we had nothing to dread;
It made not a noise, but went straight to its work,
And dumped all the dinosaurs; then turned with a jerk,
And nudging a triceratops aside with its nose,
And giving a growl, up the quarry it rose;
We all breathed a sigh of relief, the sound sharp as a whistle,
And around our feet T-Rex feathers flew like the down of a thistle,
We heard Katherine say before she walked out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”