Neanderthals

My heart breaks when I think of you


Why do we equate dullness with your name?


You that honored the natural world

Harmonious coexistence lasting four hundred millennium

Built for stamina, the long run, the perfect human




Eden mourns your passing


Out of Africa a new line, cunning and clever

A new human animal, a different intelligence


This is my homage, my apology


Our scientists say your last stand was at Gibraltar

A Neanderthal metaphor of solid rock


O, the unbearable thought of an entire people vanishing

Isn't it ironic that our species would create the Buddha?


Our African stewardship squandered

We have let Eden down

We are now witness to the fruits of our cleverness