My Brother the Ape

Well, I got the invitation
That you sent to everyone
And I told you family picnics weren't exactly my idea of fun
You replied that everyone but me said they were going to come
Which is how you talked me into going to the reunion

When you said everyone, you really meant it

My brother the ape
My brother the ape

I received the photos you sent
And I don't regret that I went
Or the sight of everybody stiffly posing under one tent
But I don't feel I belong and I keep wanting to escape
And I fail to see the likeness between me and my brother the ape

They all kept saying (they all kept saying)
How much we look alike (how much we look alike)
I don't think that we look alike at all (I don't think that we look alike at all)

But I'll admit that I look more like a chimp
Than I look like my cousin the shrimp
Or my distant kin the lichens
Or the snowy egret or the moss
And I find it hard to recognize
Some relatives of ours
Like the rotifer, the sycamore
Iguanas and sea stars

My brother the ape
My brother the ape

They say you don't get (they say you don't get)
To choose your family (to choose your family)
But there's no other one to choose (but there's no other one to choose)

So that's why I'm writing this now
And you can tell my sister the cow
That I meant to thank her for the gorgonzola
And I'll allow that I've been acting like a stranger
But you guys are all so strange
Though I think of what I'm like
And I can see we're all the same

So this time next year, we'll meet at my place

My brother the ape
My brother the ape