there had to be a time
when humans started to be
much like the way we are now
and not swinging from trees
from grunts to words
words to phrases
before we even thought to write it all down
before gasoline cars
before airplanes and trains
before cities and towns
before critics and clowns
I sit and wonder
what it could have been like
for our ancestral cousins
to have unlocked the treasures
of the earth
and the secrets of the mind
when thought became fire
when planning became action
the emergence of concepts and ideas
when we began using our voices to sing
there must have been a time
when past, present, and future
became topics of discussion
was it all of a sudden?
did a light switch turn on in our heads
and our brains went ablaze?
or was it slow and arduous,
fraught with confusion and terror?
did we kill other beings
who also walked on two legs
but didn’t look quite enough like us?
did we all bury the dead?
or just some weirdos at first?
I imagine some lunatic started drawing in caves
and wonder whether she was shunned for her maniacal ways
there must have been talk of threats and distrust
before we started locking our doors
laughing at farts before jokes and metaphors
human behavior, it changes so much
as society itself propels forward
but when did it all start?
we still don’t quite know
was it after we left Africa?
more likely sometime before
did we fuck the hottest Neanderthals
before we took them to war?
how many babies were lost
for lack of resources?
when did we start tracking the seasons
and stop shouting at the stars
for incomprehensible reasons?
behavioral modernity is so much more
than body paint and tools and cooking our meat
I can’t get it out of my head
what it must have been like living back then
but I suspect the earliest versions of us
lived by their own set of rules
ways of life and patterns of thought
that we are only beginning to understand
Garbage Notes:
I’ve always been interested in what the lives of early humans must have been like. To me it’s one of those tantalizing questions, wondering at what point in early homo sapiens history did language and other recognizably modern cognitive skills emerge.
One of my favorite classes in college was Evolutionary Psychology, and I think that’s where my interest in this topic first started. So this poem here captures all of my musings about what it might have been like to be one of those cave people, living nomadic lives, hunting and gathering, making tools, and generally just trying to survive.
I always reflect on what their days and nights might have looked like—how often they slept or socialized. Did they have wild sex? Did they fall in love? How many hours a day did they work and how creative were they? Did they run around naked sometimes? Did they write poetry? Or tell stories…
Life must have been short and brutal, but at the same time there must have been a natural beauty to living in that era. I’m sure they had moments of joy and contentment and felt feelings like confusion and sadness and uncertainty about how obtuse and impenetrable most of Earth’s mysteries must have seemed back then without technology or the internet.
Anyway, this poem was a joy to write. Yeah, reading it out loud wasn’t exactly a picnic given it’s one of my longer and more academic poems, but I hope you enjoyed it.
Let me know what you think about the lives of early humans. Do you think they were a lot like us? Did they share much of the same worries and concerns? What sorts of concepts and ideas do you think still connect us to our ancient human counterparts?
Feel free to reflect on these ideas in the comments. Until next time … keep writing and keep reading! It’s all part of what makes us human.
Franco Amati 2023
I remember being moved by Carlyle's essay on heros.
To the men who had just escaped Plato's Cave, lightning or light meant Thor was hammering his anvil to prepare to do battle with the Jötunn the next day. Literally to decide the future of the realm.
Now light just means flipping the switch on your wall.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is they probably had wild sex.
They were so connected to nature. I think the connection to nature is the biggest loss humankind has strayed from. I feel like that lunatic in my cave sometimes now and it’s where I dream to be all of the time. Too much noise and destruction. The blooms are disappearing and the only connections that seem to matter require Wi-Fi...I smirk at myself as I type this on my phone.
I think your “mistakes” improved this poem. Little “happy accidents” as Bob Ross would say. :)
Okay, back to my stone tablet and thoughts, fuck, I better go start a fire too. 😂