Ancestors

[dukealien]

Ancestors

who may have looked like me,
feeding fire with words,
chanting the names 
of the sky god, moon god, wind god, and the one
who rides a black buffalo bringing death,
in youth I found you lame,
forbears ignorant of the sun’s
triple alpha breath,
polynucleotide chains, ATP
and the conflagration it brings.  
But now my blood is tame,
the path still as long, and the gods still lie in wait
at the end of things.

Intriguing.  Nandi is far enough outside my religious envelope that I had to Google... the juxtaposition of the buffalo and "lame" is neat.

The gods (particularly Shiva, do I have that right?) lie in wait at the end of things which is also their beginning (again) - Big Bang, expanding and contracting universe, sort of thing.

On a technical level, the end-rhymes lie  just below the conscious level until one looks back and takes note.  Very nice.