Your bones, skin hair, eyes, all the other parts of your body are encoded
in your DNA. So are all the parts of a chimpanzee’s body.
~Morrill Hall Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska
The Martians compare their faces to chimpanzees.
They lift rectangular screens to theirs and see
their long, slim bodies topped with scraggy beards,
rounded brows, and brown sentient eyes.
They press their palms against the glass to test
their hand size to the animal’s. They place a foot
on a raised platform with white footprints. Same
number of hairs, 99% same DNA, same fingers
same toes, human’s closest relative—all noted
in the museum’s learning zone display. You lack an opposable big toe, says a Martian
who swings green legs while perching on a stool.
Everywhere the Martians explore evolution.
Masked and reflected, I can’t help but to stare.
Laura Madeline Wiseman has a doctorate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she teaches English. She is the author of six collections of poetry including the full-length book, Sprung (San Francisco Bay Press, 2012) and the chapbooks Farm Hands (Gold Quoin Press, 2012) and She who Loves Her Father (Dancing Girl Press, 2012). She is also the editor of the forthcoming anthology Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence (Blue Light Press, 2013). Her poetry has appeared in Margie, Feminist Studies, Poet Lore, Cream City Review, Pebble Lake Review, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, and elsewhere. Her prose has appeared in Arts & Letters, Spittoon, Blackbird, American Short Fiction, 13th Moon, and elsewhere. Her reviews have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Valparaiso Poetry Review, 42Opus, and elsewhere. www.lauramadelinewiseman.com
[...] Planet of the _______ [...]
[...] Planet of the _______ [...]