With magnifying glass and a big shovel in hand
she meticulously sifts through coarse desert sand
examining a small rock, smashing cretaceous sod
she is on the hunt for that tiny cephalopod.


No scorpions can stop, nor dust storms curtail
her search for a fossil of a primeval snail
and though it is hot in the bright sunlight
that won't end her hunt for a small trilobite.


Her work is exhausting as she looks everywhere
to uncover a polyplacophoroy, a find most rare
her drive is relentless, her digging never stops
she's hoping one day to uncover a triceratops.