How can we see other mammals
And not think them our brothers?
One needn’t look as close as
Primates to note the plan of our
Framing—bones of our hands,
Their paws, bend of their legs,
Our elbows, their knees,
Locked into consonance across
Millenia, over eras our spines
Oriented since seafloor-crawling
Flatworms formed our fronts,
Our backs, our heads, and
Our tails—all replayed as we
Reform in our mother’s womb.
When we stare into the tiger’s
Face and cry, “What immortal
Hand or eye dare frame thy
Fearful symmetry,” are we
Aware Brother Tyger may be
Wondering the same about us?
But, for all this fellow feeling
I declare for warm blooded,
Fur-covered beasts, I’m in no rush
To gather my family lizards, snakes,
Invertebrates. Notwithstanding
Charlotte’s charm, I can’t curl
Up with an arachnid, nor Fafnir,
William Morris’s worm. One
Admires lepidoptera from afar
Through the lens of the microscope
Where you cannot hear the tiny
Clacking of their body plates,
Racket lovable only to another
Of their kind. I can identify with
Mollusks’ fondness for privacy, its
Love of the seashore; but few indeed
Are parties for clams; they never
See sky. Probably, like corals, they
Don’t miss it nor wonder why.
You see we’re traveling down
The chain to the single-celled
Creatures, brave indeed, who paired
Up to start the animals’ dance. Did
A handsome amoeba saunter over
To a particularly comely one and
Offer, “We could make beautiful
Music together”? Let’s go even
Further to witless grains of sand
Whose minerals will constitute
Sharks’ teeth one day. But why
Stop there, when the atoms of
Carbon, iron can be traced to exploding
Stars giving us all our stiffness?
Was it not written that God could
Raise up sons to Abraham from
The stones of the earth? How apt,
Looking back, how positively
Grounded. Even atheists contend
We are but star-stuff. The family
Of us claims a lineage direct
To the foundation of all. Looking
For grace? Look all around you!
c. J.S.Manista, 2015
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