Lucy

 Hominization

Lucy,
blessed among women,
three million years ago,
when there weren’t any legends yet
but only a loving search
for dandruff in the fur,
was waiting for somebody
on the lakeshore,
but no one came except death,
suitable for the species
Australopithecus afarensis,
a small death with human walk
and the skull of an ape.
Lucy, excavated,
partially ascended into heaven
after restoration with plaster,
a forgotten nursery rhyme,
eeny-meeny-miny-mo,
and she’s still waiting.
And maybe we too,
even if there’s a plaster shortage.
And maybe we too, with all pliocene hopelessness
on the lakeshore.
Perhaps they’ll find us some day
once there are real people.

MIROSLAV HOLUB (1998)
Translated by Ewald Osers

A corpus reconstruction on exhibit in the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., United States