Aliens
by Judith Johnson
Mammalian brains are
layered on top of a reptilian overlay on top of the fish,
all integrated
complexity of which we are very proud.
Language is built in:
dogs manage a few tens of words,
Homo sapiens, big headed apes, a few thousand.
***
Birds are also of reptilian ancestry.
But they have evolved their own new grey matter,
utterly alien to us,
with different language generating hardware.
Language is built in:
new studies show that parrots are not just parroting
when they talk they mean it.
We easily see where birds are stuck
in instinct,
imprinting on the first moving object they see at hatching,
an alien mode of birth,
going through their stereotyped courtship dance,
from which they cannot deviate,
while we seem so free as we sing,
dance and regale each other with endless
innovative poetry.
***
Birds make up new songs,
our creativity may be little more than a more variable courtship dance.
We spend our whole lives embroiled
with biological parents, obsessed with
origins and descendants, unable to move on, because really, what else
is there
for us?
Birds are not alien, reptiles are
not alien, fish are not alien,
Beings that do not breed, that would be alien.
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