The Ascent

The Ascent

~David Martin Fargotstein

Single cells begin to split

And life the way we know begins

Forming tools to touch the world

Bodies form and limbs uncurl

Swimming now, in primal sea

Metabolize, begin to feed

The weakest ones will perish first

To satiate the stronger’s thirst

True selection has begun

To wash away the weaker ones

More and more complex they grow

Fins and limbs begin to show

Teeth and claws and eyes and skin

Gills and scales and dorsal fin

Starting now, this divine plan

And so begins the ascent of man

Fins to limbs we start to see

Creatures crawing from the sea

Amphibious and glistening

Limbs then legs then feet then wings

Sea and earth and sky, now home

Nurtures these creatures to grow

Some as giants, some just small

Some you cannot see at all

A few of these, we’ve come to see

Took to living in the trees

Covered with hair, forelimbs strong

Carrying their young along

This beginning, as we see

Of intelligence and memory

A tiny spark begins to light

As neurotransmitters ignite

Arboreal, understand,

Is the precursor to Man

Down the road, a funny thing

We shed our hair, learn to sing

Discover fire, never cold

Discover ways to save the old

Invent the wheel to save our backs

Invent the club to prevent attacks

With spear and arrow now we hunt

Forage for food under the sun

Spread our species far and wide

Leave the other ones behind

Hunt and gather, fish and wander

Gaze into the sky and ponder

Discovery of farming, crude

Allows us to create our food

From camps to towns to cities, nations

Adobe huts to tollbooth stations

Glistening spires of stone and steel

High fructose and processed meals

Sleds and horses to speeding cars

Discover America, explore Mars

Every change along the way

That made us what we are today

Was ruled by CHANCE and not by FATE

Not by CHOICE and not by TASTE

The universal dice, now cast

Produced the human race at last

The likelihood of all you see

A molecule against the sea

This cosmic coincidence of chance

Delivered us into this dance

Mankind alone is privy to

This mingling which I share with you

Alone in all the universe

No other creature knows the hurt

Or Joy that’s characteristic of

The HUMAN CONDITION known as

LOVE