trout

Discovering Toumaï

Diana Bridge

1
It is cast up like land from the uniform
flat of the sea. The jaw is a coastline,
the hoof-shaped bays of small
conclusive teeth reducing
to an isthmus—two predatory
fangs; set side by side as planks are,
they reach out to a mainland.
A range of bald, low-lying hills,
its braincase, backs a brow-ridge
that juts over emptiness.

2
The skull squats on the page,
ancient site for some new-fangled
worship, a temple that has lost
its sculpted eyes. The print
walks round it, gives it a wide
berth. And hides in columns
unimaginably exact the beauty
of words like oblivion

Toumaï is the name given to the hominid skull Sahelanthropus tchadensis, the discovery of which was widely reported in July, 2002.