Our Species (2016)
Our Species (2016)
by Harriet Katz
Annie Gill, soprano
Joseph Regan, tenor
Tim McReynolds, piano
Baltimore, November 19, 2016
www.harrietkatzmusic.com
Lyrics:
“Our Species”
Our species
leaves a lot, a lot, a lot to be desired
We like to think that we were good guys at the start.
We had groups, not troops.
We were hunting, gathering, talk talk talk talk talking,
Making jewelry and music and art.
But because of the recent discovery of a 10,000-year- old massacre
That view is coming apart.
Farming’s also to blame.
People with lots of crops could store and hoard
Others had less while they had more
Et voila! War! Forever
On and on and on and on and on..
And war-- along with its companion rape--
Functions as an evolutionary tool
To diversify and thereby strengthen the human gene pool.
Today, still more of the same, the same, the same.
Plus, since the Industrial Revolution, Pollution!
New York puts its garbage on barges.
Plastic’s wreaking havoc with the ocean.
“Nature’s Balance” now is just a brand name.
Our species leaves so much, so much to be desired,
We should be fired!
“Our Species” words and music ©2016 by Harriet Katz