Neanderthal

Leg bone yields DNA secrets of man’s Neanderthal ‘Eve’

Times 8th August 08

I mark the cost of creation:

detritus binned by the poet,

Screwed up scraps of paper tossed aside, till the forged art

emerged on the page. The wordsmith

satisfied with her imprint.

It was good.

Is this how it was in the beginning?

Dust of the earth modelled and

remodelled till Alpha male emerged

in the Creator’s image.

Announced it very good.

Left the wastage to slow extinction

unevolved. Not to reach the Omega point.

Detritus doomed to endless death.

Is there no salvation

for the lost tribe? Pity

stirs the heart

to prayer for the one gene, maybe,

dormant in this human frame.