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