Hilde Weisert

Hilde Weisert is co-founder of this Society. "The Scheme of Things" was first published in Writ.

The Scheme of Things

an old idea in light of recent evidence

Lacunae lace the fossil record, and coeval bones
of super- and subordinate species — the one
we'd thought replaced the other — won't line up
for the slow, steady march, where the primal
versions (short of reach, or range, or wit required
for the shifting fruit, or prey, or plight) would retire
with the resigned sigh of the marginally outclassed.
Instead, ingenious leapers coexist with their irrupted past.

So: One morning, from nowhere, an unselected self: A gait
that unrhythms you, a grasp that fills your fist
with nameless stuff, a skull like a holy dome—A new weight!
But on this plain, the claw-and-hunch will coexist
with you for ages. All aching appetite, her jaws will snap
flesh, and your fine teeth close. Even now, ontogeny recaps.

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