How Strange These Creatures

How strange these small and wondrous creatures
I observe to understand their ways.
If I understand the biological and medical research
then they will grow into small facsimiles of us.
I’ve observed them from their birth
and come to certain conclusions.
At first they understand pain and only pain.
They chirp and cry at any discomfort
unable to struggle in the slightest.
Once they, these small and wondrous creatures,
come to terms with the pain of existence
they understand need.
They cry out and reach with tiny outstretched fingers
grasping for comfort and aid.
Their deepest desire is for a full belly and clean butt,
and often this runs counter to our desires
for quite moments alone or together free from these screaming spawn.
From this they learn disappointment.
Even when we are quick to supply aid or comfort
it never arrives as soon as these small wondrous creatures would prefer.
We are incapable of moving at the speed
they would like us to, and because
of our lack of common language it is difficult to make
ourselves known to them or them to us.
The final lesson we have observed in them
is that of self soothing.
When we inevitably fail to arrive in time to offer
aid or comfort we find them sucking on a fist
or pressing their hands to their temples.
It is the belief of our research team that
these rituals are a demonstrative response
to our repeated failures and a reminder
to these small wondrous creatures
that there will be times when they, themselves,
are fully responsible for providing a substitute for aid and comfort.
Our time with these small wondrous creatures is nowhere
near its end,
and we hope to learn much more of them and their
strange and foreign ways.