Significance

The most important thing to know about prehistoric humans is that
they were insignificant animals with no more impact on their environment
than gorillas, fireflies or jellyfish.
––Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Scavenging our way into history,
          we discovered significance
                    chasing primates, fouling firefly air,
                                   choking free-swimming jellyfish.

Ambulatory water bags, we’ve spent
           millennia sieving out our mud
                        and, failing that, ignoring the gifts
                                 of free nightlights and balletic swirls.

Longer wild than tame, our unwise breed
             hasn’t grasped History repeats
                         itself first as tragedy
                                  than as farce. So we wrack up

travesties, ashamed to admit
              we’ve yet to earn the right
                       to claim the specialness of relatives
                                    basking beneath rolling forest mists.