I saw a picture in my mind
My mother holding hands
With her mother
And her mother with hers and so on

Their arms outstretch
They formed a line
Stretching far into the distance
A line two hundred miles long

Mother, grandmother, grand, great grand
A quarter million ‘grands’ in all
A quarter million generations
In years perhaps six million

I waked that line and saw them change
Stature shortened, slightly stooping
Coarser facial features
Much more body hair

And then a mother held the hands of two
Identical twins they were
One standing clearly in the first line
The other starting a line all her own

I followed now that second line
Back toward where I’d started
And compared the two lines side by side
The further I walked the greater difference

I am approaching now where I began
I see my mother standing there
And by her side my distant cousin
A full grown chimpanzee