Neandertal Songs

by Delany Lemke
 
The first instrument on fossil record
is a four holed flute found in Slovenia 
made from the femur of a cave bear cub.
 
The bone wailed like a mourning mother
and wavered like knees under spear point.
It’s voice a heavenly scream,
calling toward concertos yet unwritten.
 
We cannot know what our ancestors composed,
how they danced to it, or if they danced at all,
but we can see ourselves in that impulse
to blow life back into a space 
where once there was marrow,
our tender breathing blood maker.
 
I would not mind if someone stole a tibia
from my corpse,
hollowed out the middle,
and crafted a clarinet.
Play one last tune from me—
my tomb song.