Paleolithic stampede on cavern wall, Chauvet Cave, 32kya-36kya
Daniel Weiss
Paleolithic stampede on cavern wall, Chauvet Cave, 32kya-36kya
Entombed primordial love, ochre
on the stone in the dark:
correct our fleeting eden.
You ponder as your hands work
themselves into the wall, earth
dye still hovering, speckling the
air, bloodying your flesh,
What is art but some directionless
prayer?
Signatures, corporeal shadow
makers, names overstaying their
welcome in the air and making the
tongue sore—
Spray your crimson earth on these
walls and teach us to cure our loves
with enough salt to form our own
stalactites,
long before we even consider reaching
for them again.
The dye lingers in the air and sparkles
in the torchlight—
I see your hand without you.
Moonrise over a silent earth,
but the cave still knows my touch.
Daniel Weiss is a writer, archaeologist, and ceramicist originally from River Forest, IL. He earned his B.A. in anthropology from Kenyon College in 2024 and has since worked as an archaeologist. At Kenyon, he helped found, curated, and produced layout for the college’s newest literary magazine. He also produced layout for the college’s oldest student-run literary magazine and reviewed submissions for the Kenyon Review for two years. As an archaeologist, he cherishes the opportunity to meet the past in person. He lets this experience, along with its inherent relationship to nature and the passage of time, inform his work.