Sometimes I feel like Lucy
face down in a river
in the Olduvai Gorge
eons of mud permeating
my bones
I saw her bones yesterday.
A tiny hominid.
I'd imagined her larger,
but she was the size of a child.
Sometimes I wish
I could be her
all grown up
wading in a river
in the cradle of the hominids
in the Great Rift Valley
I wish I could remember
being Lucy
to see if I've changed at all.
If I've really evolved.
Or am I still
that tiny hominid
Face down
In a river
In the Olduvai Gorge.
It was way too hot
for walking around
in the tropics,
And I was catching
frogs and fishes
before fire
What was I thinking?
I just wanted a drink,
so I picked up a coconut
from the ground
& drank the fermented juice
and got a little giddy.
I didn't know what I was doing.
Then I slipped in the mud
face down in a river
In the Olduvai Gorge.
My sisters kept walking
North and east
dropping babies
everywhere.
Seeding the Earth
with Hominids.
When murder was born
the sisters wept
He was handsome
and always smiled
He was a charming boy
He never cried.
Then jealousy, Envy and Greed
Were born
and we nurtured them
because they came out of us.
They were only children.
Cute as buttons.
I wish I was Lucy now
Face down in a river
in the Olduvai Gorge
A tiny Hominid
before fire.