And the days of Adam after he begot Seth were eight hundred years, and he begot sons and daughters.
I spend an inordinate amount of time
on the genealogy websites trying to find
the people who came before me and
the people who came before them.
Terrible histories and spotty records
only allow me to go back so far. If I could
I’d find the original Saccorhytus that crawled
out of the sea five hundred and forty million
years ago (give or take) to become my great
great great great (times a lot) grand parent.
I’d like to tell him, or her, or maybe they were
all just its back then, thanks for the effort,
maybe show them pictures of my kid and
my nice house and hope that they’d be
proud of what I’ve done.
The odds of that happening are slim
especially considering I can’t trace myself
back to Adam, who I must have been related to,
who lived a mere one hundred and twenty
thousand years ago (according to science)
or five to six thousand years ago
(according to faith.)
I believe in the chain, even if I can’t see
all its links. I’d like all the world’s enemies
to gather at an ancient family reunion.
Let that saccorhytus shake its big mouth
and bag-like head at what we’ve become.
This just in – Science is now telling me we
aren’t descended from the saccorhytus after all.
I don’t know what to believe any more.