Denisovan Psalm
Deep inside a Siberian cave,
were found two teeth and a fingertip bone.
DNA analysis concluded these to be
of a young girl from an unknown branch
of humankind, named Denisovan
(after the hermit, Denis, who once lived in the cave).
Two X-chromosomed teeth and a nubbin of bone—
the only record yet known,
that Denisovans ever existed.
_____
Pioneer 10, a space probe launched
to explore the outer planets,
completed its mission, then fell silent
as it slipped the bounds of this solar system home,
to traverse a dark and endless void—
alone and incommunicado.
Scientists predict it will pass by Aldebaran
(a “nearby” star) in some
two million years.
_____
Forty thousand years have passed
since that Denisovan died.
WHO was she?
What mattered to her?
What did she dream for herself?
Did she ever stare up at a raven sky and wonder,
Who it was that made her?
Her only legacy (and of all her kind) is
two teeth and a tiny bone. Nothing else.
Nothing.
______
Fifty times longer than that will pass,
from now till when that lonely ship “arrives.”
Then today will be a very, very long time ago.
What of ME shall, by then, remain?
Any sign or even distant ripple?
Or Denisovan oblivion,
and radio silence?
______
Or more?
God said to the exiles:
“Can a woman forget her nursing-child, or show no compassion
for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.”1
Remember my dust, O Lord, when I sleep (trusting) in you.
1 Isaiah 49:15-16
Brad Langley