THE LAST NEANDERTHAL

.
I lean upon this ancient rock,
Wounded by the jabbering men
Who tore my beautiful daughter and her lover apart,
And killed them.

They strut among the bodies of my kin
And all the rest of my folk:
All my people gone,
Their carcases bleeding into the earth;

They think I too am dead,
And soon they will be right.
Why did they slaughter us,
When there is so much space for all?

And what will they do with this beautiful Earth
Which has loved and sustained us
And given us so much joy
Since time began?

I fear what will come out of their jabbering,
Their brutishness and their toxic self-importance,
And their power of speech they are so proud of,
Which enabled them to plot together
To destroy us.

I see that in the end
The talk they are so proud of
Will give them undreamt of powers,
And lead to their undoing;

For they will spread death
To every creature
In every land
And under the sea,
Murdering wherever they go,
Even themselves;

Until they kill the very world itself,
The Earth which gave birth to both them
And us
They will trample and turn to dust;

Until they annihilate everything and everyone,
Babbling and jabbering to the end,
Till the very last man
Gibbers to himself
Amidst the smouldering ruins of the planet.

_______________________________________________