Damn you Charles Darwin, I see further now
And feel worse because of you.
If you never took your voyage, or if you took your voyage
But shelved forever your book on species,
How wonderful it would be for me now
Dealing with just the disappointment of parents
And grandparents that I can see in the flesh,
Instead of a billion primeval ancestors hissing in anger
But no, you had to point out the long line of descent
Standing behind every person, including me.
So when I think about how I’ve stalled
On the path of life and feel despair over going on,
I see thousands of organisms looking
Distressed and forlorn, wondering why they struggled
Against the primordial odds
To pass on their genes to this ungrateful successor.