Inconsequential

Is anything? It seems
So many people prove

Inconsequential to
Cultural residues.

In this valley, people
Lived for thousands of years

In winter pit-houses
Close to the river mouth

And dispersed summer camps.
You sift for their traces.

They had songs and stories.
They must have. What were those?

What did all their lives know?
They were the descendants

Of peripatetic
Wanderers who foraged

Wilderness for thousands,
Tens of thousands of years,

Through Africa, Asia,
And North America,

Before arriving here.
They’re still here. They never

Completely disappeared,
Although they were absorbed,

By-and-large, by later
Waves of people who were

More numerous, therefore
Seeming consequential,

All those waves connected.
All waves stay connected,

Radiating outward,
Crossing, overlapping,

And all of their patterns
Shape their consequences,

Which only makes it more
Mysterious how much

Seems inconsequential,
How so many are lost.