There is nothing scarier
than dark hairs on your middle didgits,
or calloused squares 
growing on your wide, flat feet.
There is nothing scarier
than seeing a widow’s peak 
on an orangutan
or noticing your mother’s eyes 
in an exhibit at the zoo.
What if at your family reunion,
the chimps met up with your grandparents?
“My, how your little ones have changed,”
they’d say,
“My, how our family has grown!”
There is something deeply unsettling
when a human and an ape
make eye contact.
There is a history in that stare
recognizable, but impossible to articulate.
“Hello Primate.”
“Hello Hominid.”