In the beginning,
We were dragged from the depths of the ocean,
And pulled out into the impossibly bright
Light of the world.
And as this creature,
This noble ancestor
Gazed around himself,
He realized his lungs were tired,
And he slid back into the water,
Retreating into darkness.
But curiosity
Was too strong to resist,
And soon he crawled from the tide again,
This time unable to tear himself away from such novel Landscape.
And this noble ancestor
Tumbled through life,
Constantly changing,
Century,
After century,
Longer limbs,
Gangly fingers,
Tails and jaws,
Canines, and pupils,
All added and subtracted, re arranged on the face of that noble ancestor.
Until finally
He was here.
We were here.
And we blinked in a light,
Every bit as bright,
As the first glint of sunlight which had greeted the noble ancestor so many years ago.
Cities rose and fell,
Death
Destruction
Medicine
Children
Adults
Elders
Fires
Governments
Art
Religion
All were added and subtracted, re arranged as that noble ancestor
Built a world,
Then tore it down again.
A cycle…
From the day that noble ancestor
Crawled from the sea to the forests
Of Pangaea,
And from the day that noble ancestor shed light
On the many complex,
Yet beautifully simple life which still resided in the salted water,
And as that noble ancestor formed
Apes that lumbered, heavy and pensive,
Birds that flitted impossibly agile and quick,
Rodents who dug deep into the crust of the earth,
Insects who wove through the infinite labyrinth of vines and trees,
And so many others, all beautiful and necessary,
It was clear,
Whether it was sparked by the hand of the divine,
Or the curiosity of that noble ancestor,
Life is a miracle.
