Prime Ape

I'm the smartest of the primates

Small hard-handed ape

Grasping for a sense of space,

A rock, a meadow, a warm hole

And roasted meat before I sleep.

I'm the smartest of the primates

I live uphill, upright, supreme

But I can't go out in my pyjamas

And I only look up when something falls

And I only look down to feast.

I'm the smartest of the primates

And I killed another beast of the Earth today;

I've munched up and swallowed whole worlds!

Forget about the birds, the fat magpies nesting

In all the trees outside all those M&Ses.

I'm the smartest of the primates

And I've forgotten all those other things

In bright or rainy places,

Even as they scrabble for the worms I snatch

And the puddles I wash them down with.

I'm the smartest of the primates

And my vision stretches light years

And you can't outrun my hunger.