Hybrid Hunter Monster

Humans and the timber wolves
They encountered in central
Asia had this in common,

A core sort of restlessness
Plus recent, hard selection
To be hardcore generalists.

It was the signal event,
That meeting, the starting gun
For all domestication

To follow, the beginning
Of the end for hominins
As small bands within the world,

Possibly the moment
Migration through north country
Under ice age conditions,

Or nearly, led to spilling
Down through the Americas,
Possibly, too, the moment

Megafaunal extinctions
Began to involve humans.
Aside from speculation,

However, it was something
New in the world—two mammals
Bound by ratcheting culture—

People and their packs of dogs—
Adding, false start by false start,
Domesticated layers,

The bolus of dependence
Of a handful of species
That would take over the world.

You weren’t there, and yet you were.
You and the wolves long before
Had been exploring the world,

Modern-bodied as you are
This moment, talking, hunting.
Then something other was born.