You’re Only One, Too

It’s staggering, the number
Of human lives, of human
Generations went into
Each evolving invention,

The technologies of fire
For transforming food, the ways
Containers for carrying
Could be made, the collection

Of seeds from last year’s harvest,
The combination of all
These things—fires, hearths, cooking, clay,
Domesticated sources

Of food—for the potter’s wheel,
The weaver’s earliest loom,
And all the reaping, mining,
Firing, spinning, and smelting

Activities that came next,
So many books since written
About these developments,
Books themselves late among them,

So many generations
Involved in each addition,
Each one one generation,
No one more than one of them.