Kissing Cousins
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Our closest kin in the kingdom of species
are the bonobo, slim, elegant, seductive.
The only non-humans who laugh and who kiss,
these simian sisters to contentious chimpanzees
meet potential aggression with offers of sex.
Surely precursors of last century’s hippies,
both choose love over war.
These primates judge the status of males
by the mothers’ position within the pack,
a striking parallel to human societies
back in the times of goddess and crone,
thus prompting speculation
on how we might have evolved
with one or two fewer mutations of genes.