"Might he [Cro-Magnon] have drawn bison to induct a mystery far more distant than the [vanished] animal is from us today? Where do the extinct species go?" Yes. Precisely. And don't we draw the same so poignant imagery on the walls of our skulls, on the insides of our eyelids? Where are the extinguishing species going? Homonids we call our fathers, watching them watching themselves as they draw and draw away from the animals, hearing them say, as we ourselves say, No, it's the animals who are going, the great recession that never ceases, fading totality, for Mammoth and Saber Tooth are not "species" but our own others, our somehow better egos, like trees, like savannahs of moving grass that speak no names, since only we speak their names, but not to them, to ourselves, our own fixed and impoverished being. They are going away. See this tetched and tabescent quadruped in his cage. Decode his sign. "Wild Mongolian Ass, extinct in its native habitat; seventy-one known survivors today were bred in captivity." See into his unreflecting eyes. The species go and go, leaving behind these wrecked pieces of junk. They vanish deep into themselves, sink into mystery, into ourselves, distant beyond chance of thinking, imaging, defining, where essence was encoded and knowing was not knowing and existence only bred existence and mystery was the wondrous warmth of sunlight, then when all things began the journey to extinction. We were with them. They went away. And now every bell in every tower in every village could toll the tocsin of our sorrow forever and still not tell how across all time our origin always is this knowledge of loss. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SECOND BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 3 by GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS SPRING SONG by MAVIS CLARE BARNETT SIR W. TRELOAR'S DINNER FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE EARTH AND MAN by STOPFORD AUGUSTUS BROOKE THE HULDRA-WOMAN by STOPFORD AUGUSTUS BROOKE THE BUGLER FROM THE PEAKS by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON |