First Man

sometimes i imagine
i’m the first man
to stand
on two legs
in the afar valley
south abyssinia
horn of Africa
mother earth

i imagine my mama
i call her
well…
mama
who is known to the world
as Lucy

miss australopithecus
earth mother
to us all

she shows me the way of our world

we breath the clean air
we drink the clean water
we eat the lovely vegetation
and we love each other
unconditionally

i wonder what I’d think
if i had to take out a mortgage
for the cave that we live in

i wonder what i’d make
of smoke-belching machines
in place of my two good legs

i wonder what i’d think
of genetically mutated food
that has no taste

i wonder what i’d do
if told to kill another
in the name of god and country

i think that
if I was first man
if i knew then
what i know now
i’d kill myself
so that second man
wouldn’t live to screw up eden

sometimes i imagine
that i’m first man
to stand on two legs
it gives me a headache
and makes me cry

From A GATHERING STORM (c)2006 by Terry Bowman
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