So we’ve tested positive for Neanderthal in our DNA - b.armstrong

[Larry Robinson]

  So we’ve tested positive for Neanderthal in our DNA
   
 Imagine us    alive in a limestone cavern
 robed in pelts of bear or bison
 adrift in the essence of conifer smoke

 Concentric fire-light defines the contours of 
 kindred faces    jaw-line   brow ridge  cheek-bone 
 damp eyes glinting    laughter simmering

 We prize the hunters’ tales of triumph 
 savor the scent of roasting ibex
 munch the freshly foraged greens

 We decorate our bodies with red ochre
 ornament with elegance of shell and feather
 stitch our shoes of elk-skin   bone and sinew
 devise voluminous capes of vulture wings

 Through bones of birds  we flute our melodies
 chant to the beat of our human hearts  
 dance the choreography of ancestors

 Tomorrow may open with brazen sunlight
 spilling into our sleeping space  or it may
 deliver cataclysmic thunderstorms that
 challenge our resilience and our grit

 We are brawny   built to swim beyond the breakers
 bagging seals and salmon for the spread
 and yet our lives are often forfeit 

 We might easily come and go before
 the age of forty-three    buried tenderly  
 folded  like fetuses   heads bowed   knees bent  
 held close within this womb of stone

 Wildflowers placed in reverence are gone
 those who tended the injured and infirm
 the mourners and their off-springs’ progeny   gone
 but traces of ancient pollen still remain                  

	- b.armstrong

(Some experts in the field contend, despite a paucity of evidence, Neanderthals 
were little more than animals or atavistic cannibals. But what does anybody
know for sure; we’re talking  30,000 to 400,000  years ago.)