Male head
Edo peoples, Benin Kingdom, Nigeria
Copper alloy, iron
22.2 cm (8 3/4 in.)
82-5-2, purchased with funds provided by
the Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program,
Past lives paint dust-colored scenarios,
and post themselves on now-a-day billboards
to advertise a parched sense of being there.
I faintly remember...
that is until pictures pop into my mind
in flashy darkened hues of afterlife.
I reigned as Queen of Songhay tribes
in Ancient Africa.
Ruled in my father's absence in Benin.
Covered the cosmos with a hand woven shawl
my grandmother spun from the silk of Persia,
and flung the perfumed garment in my lover's face.
My speech patterns influenced language, politics,
educational systems, philosophy, science, and arts,
giving rise to the European Renaissance.
I am neo-classical, prehistoric,
the Mycenaean script almost forgotten.
I am every island, valley, and mountain fathomed.
My bones unearthed in archaeological digs
still create a melanin factor in plant, animal,
and protista kingdoms.
My prototype was, and is cloned daily
to induce future generations of my likeness
even through my fervent protests.
Scientists are surely unaware of the inability
to duplicate a peculiar people
such as the gene pool my kin excrete.
But I sigh, knowing the outcome of mutations,
and practice teaching them how to walk upright
regardless of my weariness.
Illogical presumptions about me
have formed irrational assumptions.
But simplicity allows for commonality.
So, I become what you wish you could be,
and you foster envy in my stead
because I have no want for any human thing.
Basic ethnicity aside, I am the first and last,
born of dirt scooped up by the Creator,
molded into existence by Universal hands.
Honorable mention
Adding your comment:
My sweet sweet "Lucy" these winds of time have cast you back across the beaches of man far too many times. We still are searching to awaken the spirit so we may do more than just walk in the war of our minds. This is an elegant ecstatic joyous song of sorrow and relief. Beautifully etched upon my mind. Truly lovely and passionate a volcano in the beach of time. 
John
