Gwee Li Sui is a poet, graphic artist and literary critic. He wrote Singapore’s first full-length comic-book novel, _Myth of the Stone_ (1993), and published a volume of humorous verse, _Who Wants to Buy a Book of Poems?_ (1998). A familiar name in Singapore’s literary scene, he has written essays on a range of cultural subjects and edited _Sharing Borders: Studies in Contemporary Singaporean-Malaysian Literature II_(2009), _Telltale: Eleven Stories_ (2010) and _Man/Born/Free: Writings on the Human Spirit from Singapore_ (2011). Jurassic Gardens by Gwee Li Sui There is a dinosaur in the Botanic Gardens, but one does not usually see it. It conceals itself very well behing the flora, observing lovers, strollers and poets, and joggers out for a release from a day’s direction of the mind, old couples who sit by the pond, water-lillied, ploughed by silent swans, and the trees driven by some ancient mallets into the ground – but they are now good friends, standing where they have always stood, waving their arms. There, is the kapok tree, a giant’s umbrella overturned and gathering rained cotton. There, are the cannonball trees of strange whiff and thin wiring boughs, walling in Miss Joachim’s charms. The Caribbean royal palms stand in two files like terracottas of a lost battalion. The old gum braces lean and fair; and nearby bends the Italian cypress to a cool lawn; and the grand, gouty paper-bark tree is now a patriarch of bright-dimpled flying insects and of the common birds, shedding everywhere with glad age. These prehistoric farms live on, whose only farmer they know and love all these years is a creature who speaks all their dialects – all half a million of them, whispered across the forty-seven hectares of this haven. It walks daily through these Gardens with a farmer’s smile, pruning or drinking the morning’s dew. Of course, there is a dinosaur here, although you may not see it; but if you come often, you will sense its heart turn with pride; and while you may not see it; you will know it has seen you.