Bipeds with Big Brains

Bipeds with big brains

Walking upright across the African plains.

Full of anger, cruelty and hate, 

Determined to become super-great.

Killing, maiming and enjoying pain,

Creating ruin, again and again.

With a lust for power and control,

They seek to impose their will on the whole.

Full of selfishness and greed,                        

They till the land and plant the seed.

Now we live in the aftermath

Of the destruction left in the wake of their path.

All that moves is brought down,

As wars rage regardless of black, white or brown.

One species, with the aim to expand,

Will destroy everything that comes to hand.

Profit is the recurring war cry

Blood for money; an eye for an eye.

The finite resources are under strain

Everywhere is death, destruction and pain.

Yet that large brain houses another side

To take another route – we can decide.

For love and compassion lurk there too,

And we can care for others in this human zoo.

We can give up violence and selfishness

And cherish a life not based on destructiveness.

There’s room for all of life on this great ark,

We don’t have to live in a plastic park.

Wildernesses full of creatures and song,

In which we humans can get along.

So will we use our great brains for creative invention?

And solve the problems we create?

Can we learn to care, share and find room for all life?

Or will we leave it all too late?

I fear the answer will seal our own fate.

Opher 29.4.2019

Human beings are the Jekyll and Hyde of the animal kingdom. We are often thoughtless, cruel and positively evil. We enjoy inflicting pain and causing death. We seem to gain pleasure from it. Give a man a weapon and he will feel the desire to take lives. Not content to shooting at targets they prefer to shoot birds off the wire.

We wish to subjugate nature and control it all. Chopping down trees, filling in swamps, killing anything that threatens us. Nothing is sacred.

Our worst aspects are the desire for power and wealth. We are prepared to sacrifice the whole earth for it.

Yet our altruism is also renowned. We will take huge risks to save an injured animal. We care.

Our brains are resourceful and ingenious. We can solve the most complex of problems.

We have the capacity to put right the mess we have created.

Do we have the will? Or are we going to allow the same greedy, power-seeking elite to continue to lead us towards the precipice?