On the Origin of Species

You clutched my hand and then went back to sleep

Oblivious to the comfort that this brought

Or to the stirings of a richer thought

Your closeness prompted from some hidden deep

          Which came and went as I too drifted off

          But by next morn, its heart had not been lost.

What is it makes you and I a pair?

And what has kept us close for forty years?

Simply saying 'love' ignores the layers

Of active innovation, toil and care

          That love may hold together, but which need

          A greater snese of purpose to survive.

Darwin sensed this when he came to write

The Origin of Species, for he knew

Survival of the fittest - not the few -

Had to be more than the eternal fight

          For precedence, and needed reasons why

         We stay together, often till we die,

Rather than looking all the time for more

Or better mates, more power and control

As if we had no conscious mind or soul

To rationalise what we are living for,

          And make the choice to favour loyalty

          And trust among our friends and family.

Choice is not just a rational human trait.

We see it in our gardens all around

Where hedgehog, fox and badger can be found

In lasting family groups, no casual mate,

          And only death by age or accident

          Can part a pair whose unity seems meant.

What's more the species who elect to live

In promiscuity and pain, transform

For us the other couples who were born

To be like us, to serve and also give

          Without concern for any selfish gain,

          In order that their offspring will remain

To bond in turn, as they did, and create

A quality of life they could not know

But which we recognise as though

It were alone a human's natural state;

          Yet ther before us, if we use our eyes,

          Nature provides examples to surprise

Excite and challenge, while they demand we know

And insist upon their stubborn claims

Demanding that the human kind remains

Alone, unique and set apart, and woe

          To anyone who claims we are the same

          As any other animal by name.

And yet the evidence is clear to see,

Pair-bonding may have links to DNA

But life-long obligations have a way

Of stealing up upon us and the key

          To understanding is the way we think

          Of 'Fittest' - for that's the missing link!

'Fittest' does not need to imply brute strength

But adaptation of a subtler kind

Where loyalty and compassion are refind

To outweigh a need for violence and th'immense

          Blinkered view that refuses to admit

          That power and joy may dwell at the heart of it.

Sentimental Love can quickly fade

But loyalty and compassion, overlooked

Too often by the papers, and new books

Of chic-lit, in this sex-obsessed decade

          Quietly work on, to keep the faith

          Knowing that their hope is worth the wait.

So, like a sermon drawing to a close,

Where does this leave us do you suppose?

I love you, but this simple statement misses

The hushed reality, that moonlight kisses

However sweet,  ignore a deeper truth

Which The Origin of Species would promote,

That love alone, despite the Pauline quote,

Without Faith and Hope can prove remote,

And Paul, uncomprehending, got it right

Faith, Hope ande Love are all we need tonight!

Brian Hick 14.2.09

©copyright Sally Hick 13.2.23