Martin Elster

Our Shrinking Brains

It’s something of a well-known secret among anthropologists: Based on measurements of skulls, the average brain volume of Homo sapiens has reportedly decreased by roughly 10 percent in the past 40,000 years . . . Over time, “survival of the friendliest” led to humans with slighter builds and brains on average. —Discover

Cro-Magnon would’ve put to shame
the modern mind we so acclaim,
for our encephalon is shrinking.
Some minds, though tiny, have been thinking
of the cause. How in tarnation
did this occur? Their explanation?
We’ve undergone domestication.
Now even those whose heads are hollow,
more vacuous than lemmings’, wallow
in comfy clouds. But far from town,
they plummet off the cliffs and drown.
Like bees beneath the world umbrella,
we’re quite the jolly gal or fella;
smart in some ways, dumb in others,
we’re less inclined to brain our brothers
(with grave exceptions!). In any case,
docility has saved the race.
Better to don our pint-sized hats
than battle savage sabered cats!

Martin Elster, who never misses a beat, was for many years a percussionist with the
Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Martin’s poems have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies in the US and abroad. His honors include First Place in the
Traditional Sonnet category of the 2022 Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest,
Rhymezone’s poetry contest (2016) co-winner, the Thomas Gray Anniversary Poetry competition (2014) Winner, the science Fiction Poetry Associations poetry contest
(2015) third place, five Pushcart nominations, and a Best of the Net nomination. A full- length collection, From Pawprints to Flight Paths: Animal Lives in Verse, was published by Kelsay Books in 2025.