Ice man.

Christie, A.V.

Ice Man

What hath not man sought out and found
But his dear God?

--George Herbert

 We approach you, sir, interrogate
 your origins & migrations--
 glacier watershed alpine
 Glacier man, mummy,
 ice man, copper-age man, window.
 Arms & legs.

 We find in your digestive tract traces
 of mosses, pollen.

 Reading strontium & lead (we can read these)
 and the more stable carbon, we wrest
 from you ongoing intelligence.

 Mica ages in your intestines.
 White mica, three micas, seven micas--
 molecular analysis demonstrates
 your Neolithic trustworthiness.

 Isotopic study & we get at you,
 move you in our minds from here to there.

 We probe all your archive.

 A valley's half-life--
 we pinpoint your biomineral range,
 your materials & potential
 gneisses limestone volcanics

 From basalts, your integrated value.

 Nomad, itinerant man,
 we see that you grind your cereal.

 You've ingested the grinding rock.

 We've ascertained your saliva: base
 as it worked away at the outermost
 primitive enamel.

 Even the waters you drank ice melt
 snow melt melt-water deep in your cortical femur
 we systematically reconstruct.

 We know the contributions, alterations,
 what hurt.

 One of the no-names, sir, monstrous forms
 And lives with which we have nothing, we like
 To hope, in common.

 Resolvable, finally, to conclusory statements--

 Our Mr. Sampling
 Our Mr. Therefore