The cave dwellers

The Cave Dwellers 
 
Wind-blasted, salt-sifted weathered skin.
Lean, straight-backed somewhat hirsute figures
rippled with hard-grafted muscle and bone.
Running, climbing, swimming,
hunting, gathering, fishing - days spent
sharing, caring, laughing, playing - just living.
No death. No fear of death.
No regrets in endings
Just rejoicing in new beginnings.
Back to mother to replenish our beloved giving earth.
Home crafted in glistening rock
The cave dwellers inhabit some other place.​
 
Words…Redundant…Gone forever.
A vocabulary of different meanings
proliferates with sights and sounds.
Generally speaking, words are unnecessary.
Loud. Inappropriate. Corrupt - Defunct.
Rather, grunts…purrs…clicks…gently
punctuate the still pure air - unscalding.
A language of signs and liquid faces
Subtle, almost psychic communication;
Imperceptible to the outsider.
Home crafted in glistening rock
The cave dwellers inhabit some other place.
 
Fluctuating fortunes…life itself
dependant on sun, sea and earth -
fearfully eyed and goddishly revered.
And signifiers of every kind
regarding worst enemy: weather.
Frost air bites the skin and
Icicle-haired figures retreat
closer to the bosom. Seeking warmth
amidst the skins of bygone food
until the sun comes around again.
Home crafted in glistening rock
The cave dwellers inhabit some other place.
 
And today, as I walk through town
I notice some like-kind creatures -
though caveless. Inhabitors of the streets,
at home in the concrete landscape.
Long bedraggled, unkempt hair that
Seamlessly encroaches upon the face.
Furrowed brow and Neanderthal stare
question my steps as I pass.
And a curious glance is exchanged
as if two different species meet.
Home crafted in glistening rock
The cave dwellers inhabit some other place.
 
Indifferent humanity…At nature’s mercy;
A precarious existence
Breeds a different kind of creature.
No currency in the way of life,
They find another…Adapt…
Adopt a life worth living
beneath the symbolic structures.
Unspent words cease to have value -
A devolution of speaking and seeing.
The under-class: a world apart.
Home crafted in glistening rock
The cave dwellers inhabit some other place.