The Cosmos Is Our Foster Home

Given you’re so quiet,
We’re not sure what’s weirder—
Life or symbolic thought.

Organic molecules
You have in abundance—
Maybe life had to be,

With its deaths and hungers.
We’d hope not, if we dared.
Please, not always like that.

But why symbolic thought?
Symbolic precursors
Aren’t in meteorites.

At our greatest extent,
Arguably, symbols
May have our prototypes

In the calls and signals,
Displays and rituals,
Of a minority of species

Which, at best, makes symbols
Subordinate pieces
In the puzzle of life.

Symbolically, we’re sad
And sorry for ourselves.
Why would you sponsor us?