(R)evolution

Isn't it a beautiful wonder that
—and please excuse my ambitious
and perhaps dirty language—
they knew where the sex parts were?
You say "creationism,"
I say that Olmec learned just as well
as Goth or Masai
that animals can be eaten,
That two sticks rubbed together make fire,
that water is necessary for
life.
And yes, can't you see it all now, unraveling like seconds and
minutes on the watch of that greatest of all Watchmakers?
How curiously beautiful it is
that Sioux learned just like Czech
that the body's rhythms speak
so much louder than the lips,
That a kiss is worth a thousand words,
times two.
That the little "ball" can be kicked,
whether it's made of rags or leather.
That song can be so much more
beautiful
than the spoken
word.
How did they all know—Jew and Greek and
Chinese and Aleut—
that food nourishes both body
and soul?
They say that
we can't get along.
I say
evolution itself is God's plan;
His way of saying
that we can.

Peter Riehl is a Spanish teacher at a Catholic high school in Los Angeles. He has published four short stories in three online magazines, American Feed Magazine, Circle Magazine, and The Paumanok Review, as well as three stories and one poem in print in Short Stories Bimonthly, The Storyteller, Loyola Marymount University's Speakeasy Magazine and The Santa Clara Review.