At the feet of crumbling cliffs / Norfolk juts its chin at the North Sea
Below sand and gravel / stubborn and defiant as Canute
Deposited by glaciers / in the flattened landscape
Over a million years ago / from King’s Lynn to Great Yarmouth
Lies a cache of fossils / dominated by waves
Where a storm exposed / washing and wearing
Enormous bones / bleaching and baring
A male Steppe Mammoth / an ancient soul
© Kim M. Russell, 2016
The West Runton Mammoth died approx. 700,000 years ago; discovered and excavated between 1990 and 1995, it is now on display in Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery.
Images found on http://www.west-runton.ukfossils.co.uk
