Family:
“A taxonomic rank in the classification of organisms between genus and order.”
I am part of the Hominidae family,
Alongside every other human,
Orangutan
And chimpanzee.
Every extant
And extinct ancestor
Is the answer
To the question I don’t remember asking.
The vestigial tendon in my wrist
Vestigial teeth in my jaw
Vestigial and somewhat misplaced longing
For something I don’t fully understand.
Sometimes I think about the bones
In the passage tombs in Ireland
If you could scrape some DNA from them
They would probably mention my name
Somewhere in that code.
Is there something of them in me?
Is the turn of my ankle bone
A relic of some relative
A few centuries removed?
Sometimes I feel like
I’m just built of artifacts
And trinkets from some
Other era,
A collection
Of leftover emotions
DNA scrapbook
Layers of evolution
Tied together by ancient heartstrings.
Are the bog bodies my family?
Where in the human tree
Is my place?
I start the entries of my diary by saying,
“to the future archaeologist who reads this:”
— to my descendants:
I hope you can fit me somewhere
In the history of our family,
Of our humanity.
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