ORIGINS ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT

Chris Jenord, main man behind 'The Ancestors trail', a group-walk which takes place once a year in August when we all walk backwards in time over the Quantocks, arriving, after 13 miles at Kilve Beach and the dawn of all life on earth, Anyway, Chris asked me to write a poem about 'extinction events', covering, oh, 800 million years of life on earth, 5 (currently coming up to 6) mass extinction events (geologically-speaking, not infrequent), trillions of lost species, and to deliver it at the neolithic barrow on top of Cothelstone Hill in 5 minutes. No pressure, then. This is it.