from mainland China!

once upon a time the apes drank clean water from a wildly flowing river,

a small mountain lake, a pond, or a meadow stream;
no predatory tenderness or self-indulgent dream.

or maybe from a leaf collecting its' early morning moisture,
but never from the turning on of a kitchen tap
like a modern feckless business sap
who receives the two thousand mile Caesar's salad
and shirt made in Bangladesh
which are daily flown-in and freshly pressed
like a ripe avocado shipped all the way from mainland China!

once upon a time the apes did everything by hand:
love and communication they could easily understand.

once upon a time the apes joined up around evening campfires
without using FaceTime or the Internet:
at slower tribal speeds there simply was no disconnect;
there was nothing illusory or remote or overly complex;
no derivatives or obsession with balances and checks.

once upon a time there was thriving life on the fertile plains of Africa,
before the modern revolutions in agriculture and industry
made it ever more difficult to explain the expanse of human history.

and once upon a time the planet Earth was spinning freely
without an urban landscape of portfolios and fears.

before the flinging of the supersonic spears,
there were no technicians or aristocrats

for millions and millions of years.