If You Could Be An Animal
If you could be an animal,
Which one would it be?
Which one shares your personality?
Would you be mammal, or amphibian,
Perhaps a reptile, or a fowl,
The strength and memory of an elephant,
Or the wisdom of an owl?
Or maybe one that science says is probably
A branch upon our family tree?
It's anthropologists' contention
That the simian's most like us,
Though that theory's raised an awful lot of dust.
They cite the chimpanzee, especially,
As being anything but dumb,
He has a brain as big as ours
And an opposable thumb.
Of course, if being a monkey's cousin makes you cuss,
Blame Charlie Darwin for the fuss.
Or maybe you'd select a species
That's endangered or extinct,
Each few years the list is adding one or two.
But we'll keep chopping down their habitats
To put up shopping malls,
Apartment homes, and parking lots,
'til one day it befalls
The ones who're left
Will dwindle down to just a few,
And they'll be living in a zoo.
Evolution proves we're better off
As the species that we are,
There's no need to alter chromosomes or genes.
But as the human population here
Continues to explode,
And unless somebody figures
How the excess to unload,
Then it won't matter who we know
Or what our means,
We'll have no choice but be sardines.
Copyright © Jim Slaughter | Year Posted 2022
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