Spelunkers who poke lights.
In sandy soil of caves.
Extract human mandibles.
Cold case of older tragedy.
Shoveling out bones,
sifting prehistoric composition.
Layered like scrapyard cars.
Poking paleoanthropological noses
into hidden anatomical corners.
Scraps of pigmentation
suggestive of ancient body art.
Breed of survivors,
in black holes, bear caves,
a tunnel of barren bones.
Mitochondrial DNA snippet
delivers powerful blow
to interbreeding hypothesis.
Bulging browridges.
Low-dome skull
and large brain,
crude tools
and self-awareness.

Sterile jumpsuit,
plastic bag,
chest of ice,
fragment of femur,
evidence of locomotion,
disarticulated,
scrape marks,
defleshed,
cannibalism,
evidential and compelling.
Propelling early man
to cultural dominance.
Worn teeth, in skulls,
grip hide,
while flint saws.
Delicate question
in finality.
Replacement, displacement,
attenuated and peaceful?
Swift and hostile?
Turn out the light.
Think what it was like.
For them.