Chimps Poem by gershon hepner

Though chimps from homo sapiens parted
some five million years ago,
they have not become downhearted,
since, clearheaded, they all know,
as I think did Keats and Shelley,
Byron, Wordsworth, William Blake,
that the fire in the belly
of mankind is hard to take,
and the traits that they have shared
with their cousins, close-related,
don’t mean they should be compared
with the humans, who, belated,
may be catching up, though slowly,
using clever speech and tools,
with the chimpanzees, though lowly,
fallen from the trees like fools,
living in polluted places,
competing even when they do not fight,
surviving, some of them, rat races
in a world where might is right,
by their fellow men oppressed,
soldiers, lawyers, politicians,
in the zoo towns where they best
believe they can fulfill ambitions,
while destroying habitat
of their cousin apes whose meat
enables many to grow fat,
adding to the greenhouse heat.
Though long ago it seems that they
created hybrids like Toyotas,
mixing now appears passé,
queries raised about the quotas
of mixed breeds who find no place
on the trees of college campi––
liberals call this a disgrace,
confronted by the cries of NIMBY.
Although they’ve DNA in common,
most chimpanzees do not expect
achievements from the lowly human,
species which they call a sect,
worshipping not, as they do, trees,
eating meat instead of fruit,
hostile even to small fleas,
with a favorite sport, to shoot.
Chimps respect the primates who
believe they have evolved far further,
even though can’t be true.
look at mankind, down-to-earther
than the chimps since fall of man
after eating fruit forbidden.
Chimps live with a better plan,
which from man they keep well hidden,
since they are a higher primate,
happier in their environs
than their cousins, in a climate
friendlier to apes than Byrons.


5/18/06