Surplus Ape

Walking a road of cobblestone,
carefully mind your step.
Matching ends from skin to bone:
caught in a spider's web.
Have you got the slightest notion
of what makes people tick?
Don't trust in anyone's emotion;
the wall grows higher brick by brick.

Where ambition is there is no space
for reason, love or joy.
Like cobblestone, like brick your face
will harden, man or boy.
Could an earthquake smash to pieces
all that culture brought about -
might the earth devour our species?
No more mankind? Crying out loud!

Oh April's Fools, you brainy apes!
What have you been doing so far?
Too high, you thought, God grew the grapes?
Our sun's just the nearest star.
Have you ever thought of thinking?
Have you finally filled your purse?
Maybe there are worthy beings
somewhere in the universe...


Heinrich Baumgarten, May 1984