beginning from cells that got sex
and flagella able to flex
when sponges on seashores
and flat-wormy ctenophores
were strange looking things without necks

our forebears were fish with a spine
then tetrapods leaving the brine
then mammals with eyesight
adapted for night light
that hunted when stars are what shine

from apes that chewed remnants from bone
lit fires and hammered with stone
that burned the dry grasses
and singed the great arses
of browsing beasts gone overgrown

from cave men that hunted for meat
left marks in the mud with their feet
that knapped tools from chert flint
drew oxen with dirt tint
on walls of a grotto retreat

from townships that harvested grain
that built up defences in vain
when trebuchet slingshots
and cast cannon hotshots
got all the inhabitants slain

the unbroken line of our genes
now swamps the antique holocene
where life is a part of
the grubby night cart of
a hominid's private latrine




for Homo s.    nev2015