Zest Lit Issue 2, October 2013 | Page 97

He is the sole survivor, sapiens, and we

not luck, strength or size of brain but wisdom

which means drive, cunning and a will to kill.

Moment | JoAnne McKay

Olduvai Core: Africa: The Art of a Continent, Royal Academy, December 1995

for a heartbeat there is no heartbeat

between the hominid and me

she holds it steady hand like mine

I hold it steadfast in my gaze

and will not look away till I can bear the weight

for this is it this rock

the birth of homo habilis who bears me

these two million years past imagine

what happens in her mind that makes her reason

if I hit this with that then other will result

and I can use it glass-cased before me

is the Olduvai Core of Prehistory

and I can’t use language in order to grasp

this the moment of the start of our past