Hands And Tongue Poem by gershon hepner

Hands on which all babies crawl
and later learn to catch a ball
don’t always love to curl
around the parts of me that quiver
when you’ve touched them as love almsgiver.
Are yours like those hands, girl?

Tongues that dare to make a speech,
and sometimes even taste a peach,
don’t always care to kiss
the lips that, though they are unsealed,
belong to men who aren’t well-heeled.
Are yours like those tongues, miss?

Inspired by Natalie Angier, writing about fish in the Science Times of the NYT, February 19,2008 (“What People Owe Fish: A Lot”) :
Being a resolute hydrophobe who has no more desire to go for a swim than might a kitten in a bag or Luca Brasi in “The Godfather, ” I admit I never thought of myself as a large, scaleless fish out of water. Yet after reading Neil Shubin’s brisk new book, “Your Inner Fish, ” and speaking with other researchers who use fish to delve into the history of vertebrates in general and ourselves in particular, I realize that many traits we take pride in, the body parts and behaviors we exalt as hallmarks of our humanity, were really invented by fish. You like having a big, centralized brain encased in a protective bony skull, with all the sensory organs conveniently attached? Fish invented the head. You like having pairs of those sense organs, two eyes for binocular vision, two ears to localize sounds and twinned nostrils so you can follow your nose to freshly baked bread or the nape of a lover’s irresistibly immunocompatible neck? Fish were the first to wear their senses in sets. They premiered the pairing of appendages, too, through fins on either side of the body that would someday flesh out into biceps, triceps, rotating wrists and opposable thumbs. Or how about that animated mouth of yours, with its hinged and muscular jaws; its enameled, innervated teeth; and a tongue that dares to taste a peach or, if it must, get up and give a speech? Fish founded the whole modern buss we now ride.


2/19/08