Analogous But Not Related

as in the genetic  unlikeness   of like forms
when resemblances        or similar contours
evolve for the same
but completely different reasons

yes  no comparison   to be had   between
the wings of birds   of insects   of bats
I love you       and you love me
winged similarities

like the panda’s thumb
as opposed to ours   for instance
enabling you   to grab my arm  squeeze
and the panda’s —a single padded bone
adapted for grasping   a stalk of bamboo

whales too   kept
something of their thumbs
to remember the land by
grew fins like fish       yet not

thumb  say the word   I think of my own
it’s only natural
the way love makes you think
you can enter into another
creature and speak for it

there’s a danger in me
almost persuading myself
you love me  don’t you   deep down
I know it   as certainly
as yellow-rump warblers fly back
to these very trees  year after year
or that the crows
pecking at a squirrel’s carcass  on the street
in front of the house where I live

just have another way
of loving the world