Iceman (d. 3300 BC)
by William Scheick


Downed from behind
by an inch of arrowed flint,
the grass-caped hunter
lies wide-eyed.

Wind-blown
hornbean pollen
and falling star-flakes
dust the glaciered hollow.

Hemorrhaging memory melts
the Alpine steppes
where a copper ax
once flashed lightning

and heated einkorn grains,
hard as trek-strained tibias,
bled steam starward
over drifting embers.






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