How to make a mammal?
A beast with kindly eyes,
irises flecked like candle?
Watch sentience and smoke both rise
from milk of cow and back of camel,
teddy bear fur and puppy dog cries,
and anything that fuels the human enterprise.
Is our kinship endowed by God?
Like calls to like, and wit breeds more wit?
And what of the lowly cephalopod:
an intelligence lurking in sand and grit,
legions below our esplanade
with the nerves to rival all of it.
Dear Darwin, is it not fit?
As humans, we evade the alien
and clutch whatever wide-eyed doe lies near,
obstructing a point most salient
that we all need to hear.
Animals BEWARE, foreign and mammalian:
anyone that stays out of sight
will be dragged into the cruelest night.
Max Azuara is a sixteen-year-old student from Denver, Colorado. He has a passion for writing poetry and short stories, often finding inspiration in nature and the cosmos. Max is the creator of the blog "Poetry, Prose, & Popcorn," which is a testament to his dedication to sharing his work with a global community. In his free time, he would like to be found somewhere in the gorgeous Colorado mountains with a book in hand. His favorite novels include Cloud Cuckoo Land, The Great Believers, and Watchmen.
"Human Evolution" by mdcassano is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
