Evolution

They tried to teach me about Australopithecines
and the fossil record, Homo habilis and
the Cro-Magnon man, the Leakeys and
footprints in the ashes.
It all slipped from my fingers like
a slippery bar of soap in the shower –
except for those footprints.
I remembered the footprints because they
represented life, not death.
But as for the rest, who really cares?
Some people seemed very concerned
(something about God and Eve and mitochondria),
but why does it matter?
No one from that time is alive now,
except for maybe a few giant clams
(unless the scientists have killed them all).
What really matters now isn’t
the evolution of a species, but rather
the evolution of the individual. Like how I
once wanted to be a ballerina,
but now I want to be a professor,
or how my sister didn’t like to eat fish
until a few years ago.