Grief Won't Invent the Wheel

If we had to worry

About the sick and dying

You all wouldn’t be here

The only way we got fire

And the wheel

And hunting

And gathering

And traveling in packs for safety

Is because we did not

Spend a second of our time

Worry about someone

When they were ill

Or unwell

If that happened

You were just gone

You were dead

And we didn’t even

Understand

Death

We just knew

That there was no time for it

And there was no time for grief either

And was that hard?

Yes

Everything was hard

Finding food was hard

Staying warm was hard

Taking a step and not stepping on something

That would gone you

Was hard

I have to ask--

When did you all

Invent grief?

When did you have

The time

Maybe you think

We always had it

But I can assure you

We didn’t

I paired up with another

She gave birth four times

We lost those four children

I don’t remember any of them

I remember moving

I remember always moving

I remember knowing

That if I didn’t move

There would be a consequence

That was greater than me

Than all of us

And we had a fifth

And that one stayed

When the others were gone

Nothing about it seemed

Worth questioning

But then again

We didn’t have gods

And we didn’t have fairness

But I think we understood

Abruptness in a way

That none of you do now

And we understood beauty

Despite what you may think

We had appreciation

For that which sustained us

And kept us fed

And warm

And safe

But the progress we made

The unimaginable progress

Because when examined

You must admit

That we accomplished more in our time

Than you have in yours

Even with all your illustrious resources

That progress

Was made

Because there were no families

Only teams

A family has to exist

Because the family decides

That the family is important

And that everyone in the family
Is important

And loved

And so must be cared for

The team exists

Because it has something

To do

And when somebody on the team

Can’t help do that thing

They have to go

And there’s nothing personal about it

We didn’t have personal

We didn’t look at ourselves

As people

And look what we did

Fire

Stories

Evolution

Nothing evolves

Without choosing to evolve

Don’t assume

It wasn’t a choice

We chose

And we chose

Movement

Over tending

To people

Who would never move

Again

It’s not a way of saying--

We were better

But we got a lot done

Not because we could never

Understand

What it would mean

To stop

And mourn what was lost

But by understanding

That there was still

So much to do

And so many more places

To go

In the name of those

Who couldn’t