The brain from ectodermal tissue rose,
As hair, the skin and eyes their forms disclose,
And from these embryonic roots, in fact,
Spring whims to which all human fancies act.
Who taught the robin how to weave her nest
Or showed the tern which route of flight is best?
Who bid the bat hang silent, upside down
Or taught the babe to suckle at the mound?
The ant with head of most minute design
Still with his brethren builds a vast combine;
Yet let his color alter overnight,
And all his kin will turn on him to fight.
Here science speaks: the genome holds the key
Its codes explaining instinct’s mystery.
If these remain immutable and true,
The human race is wedded here to rue.
_____
Belief in God may yet afford us hope
But bound in genes, through darkness we still grope;
In liberal dreams the lamb lies down in peace,
While close beside the lion grants no cease.
Through rainbow glass, the hopeful eyes see ruth,
But fail to recognize the darker truth.
Still hoping nature’s compromise is nigh,
They hear the lamb, but only in good-bye.
Yet man is surely not a beast alone—
Here too, by reason, higher gifts are shown.
And still, of all the species life began,
None slew his brethren more than mortal man.
A leopard cannot change his dappled skin,
And men but rarely change their hearts within;
A distant gait, a shadowed form, a face,
Proclaims the tribe, the kin, the blood, the place.
_____
In prison yards allegiance oft we find
Declared as quickly as a smile in kind;
Reduced unto the lowest human rung,
Where fealty in blood is harshly sung.
Where difference rises, gods are split apart
All tribes to worship in their chosen art;
To rationalize some ancient, endless game,
That finds in others yet another blame.
“They’re not like us!” the ancient cry attends
And with harsh words, we hasten to our ends.
As ants in red and black wage endless war,
So too do men embrace this tragic lore.
No history that glows in kind or good,
But more a tale inscribed in tears and blood.
Though lesser acts may hate awhile restrained,
The lamb and lion fall to fate again.
_____
We cannot halt a falling star in flight,
Nor hope to change the human heart by might.
Though taught to turn and show the other cheek,
How truly blest the long enduring meek?
The only peace, though oft debated, known—
Is peace through strength, all history has shown.
As birds of feather join in flocks of kind
Complexion’d thoughts will ever rule the mind.
Though many still embrace the dream of will
From nurtured neurons, all our thoughts distill,
The sooner men embrace this bitter truth
The sooner they may spare themselves self-ruth.
Natural selection grants no choice;
In competition, love has little voice—
The fossil record, etched in silent strife,
Bears witness to the endless war of life.
Though caustic thoughts may damn all hope in rue,
All DNA is acid, burning true.
© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.
Loubert S Suddaby poems 