The ballad of big Al

This is a ballad about big Al which I wrote on the bus.

It was the late Jurassic,
When big Al had his birth.
He lived in Laurasia,
The northern part of the earth.

He was very tiny,
When he was a chick.
He hatched from his mother’s nest,
Made of mud and sticks.

But boy, he grew quickly!
He soon left his home.
Let out in to the wild,
Where he went to roam.

He could bring down Othnielia,
He could bring down a Dryosaur.
He could bite them with his mouth,
Or slash them with his claw.

At the age of 5 he joined a pack,
To bring down a Sauropod.
Diplodocus, who made a deafening sound,
Every time they trod.

The allosaurus were smarter,
They picked off the old and weak.
They surrounded him and snarled at him,
They knew they were in for a treat.

They bit him and slashed him and mauled him,
They turned him into a wreck.
But in his last few seconds,
He hit Al with his neck!

But Al soon recovered,
And now he wanted a mate.
But the female he met rejected him,
And said he had to wait.

Big Al wasn’t patient,
He strode forward with pride.
But the female mangled his hand,
And tore at his hide.

Al limped away from the scene,
Filled with hunger and thirst.
He put mating to the back of his mind,
And put nutrition first.

He chased a herd of Dryosaur,
But he was to slow.
He triped up on a log,
And completely shatered his toe.

He died on the river bank,
Released of life’s great toil.
And when the rains came again,
He was buried under soil.

But this is not the end of his tale,
You can see him today.
His skeleton is now erected,
On a permanent display.