Another Human Being (pantoum)

(This poem goes with a blog post here)

How would it feel

if you saw another kind of human?

maybe a Neanderthal when

you were out walking or


if you saw another kind of person,

hunting or whatever it is

you were both out walking for -

that proper humans do


hunting or whatever it is you’d do

Would it be like when,

as proper humans do,

you were an artless child and you saw


would it be like then

when an Indian doctor looked after you

you were only a child when you saw

for the first time, or did it feel


Like an Indian doctor

seeing a gorilla with knowing eyes

for the first time, or did he see

a gentle orang-utan


seeing a Gorilla with knowing eyes

at the zoo and did he think,

that gentle orang-utan: ‘is he

wondering what I’m thinking too?’


At the zoo. And thinking: ‘Is he,

that mild Neanderthal man, or whoever

wondering what I’m thinking too?’

How would that feel?