Spear shafts splintering beneath its hulk -
the mastodon crashed to the earth,
roared its final lament and fell silent.
Shouts echoed across the ravine.
Dark-haired Clovis hunters converged:
stripping the hide,
carving the flesh.
Others frenzied about the carcass,
tracing broken shafts
to salvage the flint for tomorrow's hunt -
retrieving all save one.
A triumphal fire hissed and snapped,
hurling heat and smoke
high into the mid–day sky.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
**The archaeologist knelt to the ground.
Heart racing, he scraped dirt from flint,
brushed away the millennial dust
and raised the projectile to the sun shouting,
'Clovis point! '
'Clovis point' - an epiphany in the dust:
found inches from the bones of its prey.
Khaki and blue jeaned hunters gathered quickly
to read the epic written in flint and bone:
Mastodon and Clovis united by the point of a spear.*
July, 2006
Aug 9, 2013
Aug 9, 2013 at 4:24 AM UTC
Spear shafts splintering beneath its hulk -
the mastodon crashed to the earth,
roared its final lament and fell silent.
Shouts echoed across the ravine.
Dark-haired Clovis hunters converged:
stripping the hide,
carving the flesh.
Others frenzied about the carcass,
tracing broken shafts
to salvage the flint for tomorrow's hunt -
retrieving all save one.
A triumphal fire hissed and snapped,
hurling heat and smoke
high into the mid–day sky.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
**The archaeologist knelt to the ground.
Heart racing, he scraped dirt from flint,
brushed away the millennial dust
and raised the projectile to the sun shouting,
'Clovis point! '
'Clovis point' - an epiphany in the dust:
found inches from the bones of its prey.
Khaki and blue jeaned hunters gathered quickly
to read the epic written in flint and bone:
Mastodon and Clovis united by the point of a spear.*
July, 2006
Included in Unity Tree - Collected poems
pub. CreateSpace - Amazon.com
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