A quick saliva swab
and here's the news
I'm three percent neanderthal
is it my hair?
the color of my eyes?
where should I look
to find this ancestor
what do we know
about these kinfolk
closest of our cousins
seems the picture changes
from one year to the next
the more we learn
about them and about ourselves
the less reason we have to flaunt
our cleverness
had they survived I can imagine
their descendents finding out
they carry sapiens genes
would it be three percent?
that number doesn't count
the ninety-nine point seven
percent of genes we share
we were so close!
and we have yet to learn
how much of who they were
lives on in us