The last one – In the cage
As a child I was taken to London zoo. I stood in front of the small cage in which Guy the Gorilla was housed. He looked out at me with sad rheumy eyes. He seemed so human.
There was a great resignation. Guy was bored to tears.
We humans have evolved from a branch of apes that gave rise to the gorillas and chimps. Only one percent of our DNA is different. Our greater intelligence is the result of a small number of changes. It is responsible for our technology and the weapons and tools with which we are busy destroying the planet and killing everything that lives.
We assume that all those chimps and gorillas have no intelligence.
We are wrong.
They have plenty of wisdom. It is merely different to ours.
Our binocular vision coupled with that opposable thumb has enabled our tool making and our technology. It has enabled us to destroy our cousins.
I think they know their days are numbered.
The last one – In the cage
What wise thoughts lie
Behind those eyes;
Brown eyes so human.
The blitheringed
Say you have no soul
But I see the sadness –
The knowledge of your fate.
What strange tools
Could be devised
By that hand –
That hand with thumb
And finger to pick
And grasp?
What contented future
Has been savagely
Plucked from
Your grasp
And snatched
From your mind?
Opher 7.11.2015