Prototype

By Jessica Lake

Follow me.

Evolution is mutation

Culled by natural selection

Across a billion years.

As mutation is random,

Evolution must be time-blind.

Each offspring—a prototype:

Something old, something new, something borrowed.

A prototype is an answer

In search of a question.

If it aligns with its moment, it thrives—

Otherwise, back to the drawing board.

Oddly, evolution may seem

As if it plans.

I am a human prototype

Built for a question not yet asked.

Why should I writhe in anger

At Chronos’ puckish nature?

Wail that I was untimely ripped

From my mother’s womb?

Shall I flare my gills

Apoplectic in Sahara’s glare?

A man out of time is no more news

Than dog bites man.

There is no tragedy in it.

Only time and place

Making amends.