This is a poem about Lucy, Australopithecus afarensis. Her bones were found in the Afar depression in Ethopia. I think about Lucy as an ancestral mother, and marvelled at the continuity of life – three million years! Gad.
She closed her eyes against the sun
And dreamed, balanced in the morning waking,
Three million years before our sun.
They had paused in the river valley
Resting in the yellow grass,
And, smelling the surging African spring
Settled a while before moving on.
And in that golden space
She closed her eyes and dreamed,
Pressing closer to her warm companion.
Reaching out, she felt that heaviness, rounded
Handfuls of thickness stirring softly
Coming alive with the new sun.
She felt the heavy curve in her palm
And felt the warm scent rise and enter
Her body, to rock gently and less gently
Till she could bear no more.
_____________
And we, her daughters, pause and dream.
We close our eyes against the sun,
Balanced in the morning waking
And reach out in our turn.
