PREHISTORIC MAN

It is something of a mystery

that every time we look

there is more prehistory

and that, as we become better acquainted

with prehistoric man, we find him smarter than he is painted.

Indeed he is not so much painted as turned out in a three piece leather suit

with perhaps a wide hat and, as like as not, a smart suede boot.

Early man is not only earlier and smarter than one expects

but, as we get to know him, he behaves better to children and to the opposite sex.

Indeed he becomes so much like us that we are forced to admit

that in most respects human nature hasn't changed a bit.

So that looking at prehistory becomes more and more a practice

of gazing into the past and seeing ourselves grin back at us.

*

Tomorrow some personal intimations of the prehistory of the Estuary.