I never walked abroad in air
I never saw the sky
Nor knew the sovereign touch of care
Nor looked into an eye.

I never chose, nor gave consent
Nor voted on my fate
Unseen, I came, unseen I went
Too early and too late

This was my life-line trust
As absolute as blood
Now down in the bucket thrust
Anonymous as mud

Oh you within whose God-like power
Lies to so decide
Remember me when, some late hour
Talks turn to genocide

For I was part of that doomed race
Whose death-cell was the womb
But who can clear a bloody space
And call it living room

I never had a name or cried
That central cry “I am”
But in a world-wide shambles died
Defenceless as a lamb

Remember me next time you
Rejoice at sun or star
I would have loved to see them too
I never got that far.

By Bruce Dawe

Bruce Dawe A.O. (15th February, 1930 – 1 April, 2020) one of Australia’s most influential poets.

Algy, my English-born keeper brought in A Puzzle Book from Right to Life NSW yesterday. The young chimpanzees are very fond of puzzle books but I was intrigued by the poem, ‘The Wholly Innocent’. Bruce Dawe is most famous for his Anti-Vietnam War poetry. (Algy, who has been involved with this organization for a long time is most impressed with Dr Rachel Carling, its current C.E.O.)

Unlike some human beings, for example your Herod The Great who ordered The Massacre of the Innocents in ancient Bethlehem depicted in our featured image, a painting by Peter Paul Ruben, we chimpanzees – and in fact all animals – value our young ones.

Gibber! Gibber!

Chugley, The Father.