If Monkeys Are As People Say

If Monkeys Are As People Say

If monkeys are as people say,

Man’s ancestor and origin—

Why can’t anyone find a way

To link a disconnected kin?

As Piltdown Man I read about

Turned out to be only a hoax

That casts a shadow of a doubt

For fooling oh so many folks;

As one, using a canine tooth

Which was of an orangutan,

Set out, in mockery of a truth,

To fit the mandible of man.

A molar made the argument,

That maybe it was of a man,

And yet the canine was a hint

It seemingly seemed simian.

They couldn’t find a skeleton

To puzzle out a fragment that

It may have been of either one

It seemed to be by looking at;

So arguing from nothing more

Or less—apparently the same

As all they had been looking for

Of it a Monkey-Man became.

That indicates a “missing link”

Is more a matter of hearsay

Having to with what we think

Which isn’t truthful anyway,

By making whatever we’d make

Of nothing, it can be no more

Than making up for the mistake

Of a link only to be looked for.