Oh let me not be proud, dear Lord,
Nor rank myself above
The other Primates, through whose genes
We grew into your Love.
A million million years, Your Days,
Your methods past discerning,
Yet through your blend of DNAs
Came passion, mind, and learning.
We cannot always trace Your path
Through Monkey and Gorilla
Yet all are sheltered underneath
Your Heavenly Umbrella
And if we vaunt and puff ourselves
With vanity and pride
Recall Australopithecus,
Our Animal inside.
So keep us far from worser traits,
Aggression, anger, greed;
Let us not scorn our lowly birth
Nor yet our Primate seed.
--Margaret Atwood (from The God's Gardeners Oral Hymnbook in The Year of the Flood)
