Cave Painting, Sulawesi, Indonesia, ca. 45,000 years old
I
There was a hunt for the wild
boar. They heard a grunt
and had to confront
a roar.
II
So says the sow
“Sucking, sniffling, snuffling
I search for something
Succulent and sloppy
Such superb sustenance.
Superero, I will survive.”
III
The limbs that created this boar
Couldn’t physically hold it.
But the boar’s own small limbs
Were strong enough to transport it.
Run, run, run away.
From the harm of the creators.
IV
The boar, so triumphant and free,
hasn’t aged a day.
It transcends the odds of aging,
encompassing the definition of immortality.
V
The Boar is old, ancient.
Its bones, its tusks, dust–
Dead but immortalized
by hands of red clay.
VI
Striated fat, a lack of muscle.
The hungry reach to grab you–
Captured as forever art, not to eat.
VII
The timeline of history
is not a linear path.
It branches like a grand willow –
at its stump, the lines jolt & squeal
in prehistoric mud.
VIII
What was so special about this boar?
Anything?
Did its tusks shine in the sunlight
In a way no one cared to notice
Before plunging their spears into its flesh?
Or is this boar just the platonic model of its day,
Standing for every boar slaughtered in the hunt?
IX
The wants of the body supersede the mind.
The mass taken up by our trunks usurps images and attention,
yet requires less energy than our brains.
X
The desire to be known:
a rustic animal renders
the creators and the created
the same.
XI
Carved crudely a reminder of hands
grasping for the kill,
a reminder of a creature
fortunate to be remembered
if only to be hunted.
XII
Evolution means recording
the death of the beast
with the color red and
asking what changed,
and why a Boar is still a Boar.
XIII
An image was crafted by hands that saw
the beginning of time–
for this earth is no longer the same
and hands do not work
the way that they used to.
These hands must be remembered
as they once were
surrounded by the earth in its purest form.
This piece is a collective effort produced in the context of a poetry workshop.
Pozzatti, Rudy. Illinois Digital Heritage Hub. http://digital.library.illinoisstate.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15990coll11/id/106.