In the Next Life, Canto III, stanzas 240-249

“That’s no more rational than all the rest.
My father didn’t know I was his son,
and if he had, he wouldn’t have confessed
to being more involved than anyone.

“The duty that you think belongs to me
did not exist when my genes got their look.
It lived for a short time in history,
but now it’s only in your precious book.

“The only human nature that endures
is not in what we’re taught; it’s in our blood.
The strategy for male apes that ensures
the spread of genes is to be just a stud.

“Despite those reasons, though, I feel an urge
to put another’s needs before my own,
so maybe I’ve more sentiment to purge.
Or is there something else I hadn’t known?

“I’ll tell you what: I’m headed that way, too,
to take my leave before I take my ride.
We’ve come this far; I’ll go one more with you
as long as our directions coincide.”

O, would that we were there to wish them well,
to watch them on their way as they went back,
for when they’ll make it home I can’t yet tell.
To try to tell would take us off the track.

I’ll say this much: Their journey did begin.
They did start for the place they did despise.
Their loneliness and restlessness did win,
assisted by the urge to proselytize.

The other member of this little clan,
though he believed that all themselves should rule,
was finding that he liked to be the man
with three dependent females in his school.

This troubled him the way his feelings had
when he had tried to save his daughter’s mind.
He had rejected all that made men mad
when he had had his motives reassigned.

So when they were within a mile or two,
and they first had the compound walls in sight,
he gave the gals a final adi-yoo.
Without his further help, they’d be all right.

Only in your book: Ciral is ignorant of the Insiders, having no prior contact with them. Even so, it would be quite a leap to assume that family values had disappeared entirely from the planet.
Something else: Remember, Merrimac’s original quest was for an explanation of altruism, a seemingly self-defeating sentiment.
Take my leave: With Darna.

©2010 Louis A. Merrimac