a story of mankind in ten lines
"What Darwin was too polite to say, my friends, is that we came to rule the earth not because we were the smartest, or even the meanest, but because we have always been the craziest, most murderous motherfuckers in the jungle."
- Stephen King, Cell
photo by hreavv at Unsplash
a story of mankind in ten lines
1. Lucy looks up at a sky full of diamonds, she does not know their names but it is the only light she knows.
2. The winter is just an annoyance, not a death sentence, we learn that stones can cut, animal furs keep us warm.
3. It is all very simple, light a fire, keep the stone spears at arms length, keep away from the smilodons.
4. Lucy found that with numbers we can defend our homes, attack weaker people, so we build cities, make kings.
5. Man created languages, we write laws, unequal treaties, IOUs, contracts, mathematical theories, and poetry.
6. There are wars and battles, as only man knows, first with clubs, then swords, trebuchets, muskets, cruise missiles.
7. And the names ring like chisels on gravestones, Thermopylae, Hastings, Ayn Jalut, Gettysburg, Iwo Jima, Khe Sanh.
8. At 8.15 am local time a B29 bomber releases a payload over Hiroshima & we have been living under its cloud since.
9. We look up at the abrupt roar of a stray jetliner, it is just too damn near to the twin concrete towers.
10. Lucy looks up at a sky of dark clouds, adjusts her gas mask, the sky red from fatigue, the only colour she knows.
/
/
/
/
/
/
And then there are no pizza and coke and streetlights, no car fumes, no straight shots of whisky and come-on sextexts.
written : 23/10/2019
revised : 21/10/2022
********************
Imagine a clock that symbolise the evolution of Earth. Everything formed and advanced in 23 hours 59 seconds. The length of human existence is a mere second.
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2022
- Stephen King, Cell
a story of mankind in ten lines
1. Lucy looks up at a sky full of diamonds, she does not know their names but it is the only light she knows.
2. The winter is just an annoyance, not a death sentence, we learn that stones can cut, animal furs keep us warm.
3. It is all very simple, light a fire, keep the stone spears at arms length, keep away from the smilodons.
4. Lucy found that with numbers we can defend our homes, attack weaker people, so we build cities, make kings.
5. Man created languages, we write laws, unequal treaties, IOUs, contracts, mathematical theories, and poetry.
6. There are wars and battles, as only man knows, first with clubs, then swords, trebuchets, muskets, cruise missiles.
7. And the names ring like chisels on gravestones, Thermopylae, Hastings, Ayn Jalut, Gettysburg, Iwo Jima, Khe Sanh.
8. At 8.15 am local time a B29 bomber releases a payload over Hiroshima & we have been living under its cloud since.
9. We look up at the abrupt roar of a stray jetliner, it is just too damn near to the twin concrete towers.
10. Lucy looks up at a sky of dark clouds, adjusts her gas mask, the sky red from fatigue, the only colour she knows.
/
/
/
/
/
/
And then there are no pizza and coke and streetlights, no car fumes, no straight shots of whisky and come-on sextexts.
written : 23/10/2019
revised : 21/10/2022
********************
Imagine a clock that symbolise the evolution of Earth. Everything formed and advanced in 23 hours 59 seconds. The length of human existence is a mere second.
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2022
posted by dsnake1 at 12:10 AM
11 Comments:
There was simply NO WAY I could read this without chills and a few tears. Bravo!
A powerfully-written list/progression. Too true, alas!
Heartbreakingly accurate. I'll miss pizza and poetry a lot.
Dang!
Helen,
Thank you!
yes, towards the end of the poem, chilling. :)
Rosemary,
Thank you!
I hope line 10 wouldn't come true, at least not so soon.
Lucy was a significant anthropological find, that showed our human ancestors were walking around before the earliest stone tools were made.
Rommy,
Thank you!
yeah, I would miss them badly too. :)
Thak you, Su-sieee! :)
Well written!
Thank you, Ashok! :)
Perfection! Cuts through and to. Starts out playfully with Lucy in the Sky images and then hits the nail in the collective coffin.
Somehow this feels appropriate for the weekend of the first snow. Coming right after I'd read a book about dying, too...
Colleen,
Thank you!
The scientists who discovered the female fossil named her Lucy as they were lstening to that Beatle's song at that time.
The "nail in the collective coffin" is so right if nothing is done to arrest climate change.
Priscilla,
Thank you!
😃 sometimes the timing all gets together.
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