Category: Evolution

The ape regards, from between bars,
Mankind’s clothes and motor cars,
And other assets by the dozen
Belonging to his smarter cousin,
Precocious lad who from tom-toms
Skipped several grades to atom-bombs;
And who, ignoring danger signs,
Scares the world with monkey-shines.

by Ray Romine Wednesday, November 14, 1951

Along this path, all history
Has moved , sometimes spasmodically,
A restless, seeking caravan
Of life that fills the timeless span
From the earliest conscious slime to me.

But Adam, sprinting, quite outran
His cousin, the orang-utan,
And now disowns his kin that flee
Along this path.

We each hang on his family tree
What shows us advantageously:
I skip the horsethieves in my clan,
But own that animals and man
Are one, AS FAR AS I CAN SEE
Along this path!

by Ray Romine Friday, December 15, 1944

Sometimes, I think, we all are filled with awe
When we examine lives of better men
And ponder on their greatness, for just when
In any life is there the time to draw
From every well of knowledge? What they saw
And heard in books and nature must have been
The meat of their existence; and the pen
Each wielded was a fount of changing law
For after-ones to see, too, overthrown
With new-discovered facts. Yet, some there are
Who, seeing Hebrew history outgrown,
The Great and their achievements great would bar
From thought, from schools They let their fierce pride sting
Their fairness, while they mouth, “Let Freedom Ring”!

by Ray Romine Friday, December 7, 1945