Poetry. PRIMATE POEMS embodies the nature of a very young species coming into awareness of itself. Many of the story-like poems are moments of 'something going on' in the midst of 'normal' life, walking up the stairs, leaning on the counter, watching the ballgame...Immersed in geological and astronomical thought, these poems ruminate on punctuated equilibrium, the empathy of distance, interactions between dolphin-human- dog-beaver, Japanese tourism, and the possibility that the savior of the trilobites has indeed returned.