How Everyone Got Here

From Gobekli Tepe
To Nagar, half again
As many years, at least,

As from Umm el-Marra
To ancient DNA
Deciphering of bones

Of equids from both sites
To provide evidence
That kungas were hybrids.

Everything compresses
As it recedes from view.
The early, wild species

Later bred for battle
With domesticated
Donkeys are now extinct,

And extinction has ways
Of demarcating gulfs
Wider than yesterdays.

So ancient sites seem linked
To each other, despite
Their vaster gap in years,

Despite how they forecast
And practiced behaviors
That created these gulfs.

Why is it so crowded,
Always, on this planet?
How’d everyone get here,

When everyone’s going
And no one and nothing
Can stay? Takes to make more.