NVN Friday: NEANDERTHALS IN THE TILE
by Sally Zakariya
This floor tile imported from Turkey and installed during a home renovation contains what is believed to be a cross section of an ancient human jawbone. (Courtesy of Reddit user Kidipadeli75 via The Washington Post)
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Check the counters and floors check all the travertine tiles Look for signs of the old ones reaching up through time slivers of bone shards of teeth Imagine the beginning: a natural hot spring somewhere in Turkey Layer after layer of plants and animals trapped in the mud and fossilized Mammoths, rhinos, giraffes, deer, reptiles—even humans— embedded in the travertine Look down and count the years— a million or more Each step we take on earth, we walk on the past
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Sally Zakariya’s poetry has appeared in some 100 publications and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her publications include All Alive Together, Something Like a Life, Muslim Wife, The Unknowable Mystery of Other People, Personal Astronomy, and When You Escape. She edited and designed a poetry anthology Joys of the Table and blogs at www.butdoesitrhyme.com.