Some five and a half thousand years ago,


She was a young hunter-gatherer


Perhaps sitting under a pine tree,


Close to a lagoon,


Cooling her warm dark skin


While creating a buttercup garland


For her dark hair.


Perhaps, chewing her small piece


Of birch tar gum


And humming quietly,


Her inquisitive blue eyes


Scanned the Danish summer meadow


Seeking more blossoms.


Now, five and a half thousand years later,


The scientists unlock her DNA,


Her entire genome,


Found on the “chewing gum.”


She looks out at us,


Her complete portrait known.


Would that we could know 


What she was
 Thinking and feeling.