as if a burst could make a difference

and there's the picture we have of lucy
fragments identified as human, some teeth
no hair or fingernails just bits of rib
a toe bone, the remainder configured
to reincarnate the mother of us all,
out of africa and into the stars.

the other homonids are just as sketchy
a check bone here, a jaw bone there.
this is what's left of face of the cave
dweller three hundred
 million days hence.
the artist gene survives..

a woman peers at the skull
display. cro magnan, homo
 erectus, homo sapien, various
ages arranged behind glass
asks the patron beside her
which is your favorite?

as if a favorite would matter
to the mystery of these persons