9590. WHICH MAN HAS THE MARKER HAS IT

WHICH MAN HAS 

THE MARKER HAS IT

We've all got parents. Let's get that straight.

Whatever it means, that blood within us

carries the traces of some trail of delight or

some scrimmage of trouble. Either way,

'dat's who we be's,' as they'd put it in

Harvard. Just like the broad-leaf trim

on one's own burnished image, the

figment of imagination will lead

to quite glorious paths.

-

Ok, so we learn about that in school

too  -  how the fish that crawled out of

the sea later on was our grandad to be.

It's all fairly perilous stuff and only allows

its goodness for us because the sea was

not, back then, paved over nor polluted,

by rusting ships and battered tankers.

I get all that, gladly, and take my bow.

-

Well, then, fingers, OK, but why just five

on each hand? When general improvements

were moving through the neighborhood, no

one figured for six or seven? To make, say,

housework so much quicker, and more jobs

for the baseball mitt guys? If 10, why not

14 then? It's all too much to explain while

riding this speeding train that we've made

of the world  -  until there's a lethal crash 

(of course), and someone is heard to exclaim:

-

'Where did we go wrong?'