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Darwin’s Rag
by Tom Karlson
Ussher rules using candle, bible; he counts begats to prove chronology--
4004 BC, 23 October, 9 am, 9 pm, noon
begetting continents of single believing prayers
creationists, intelligent design lovers, haters of Satan and commies
towel heads, diversity and peace and Believers in the great unchange
darkness rules Europe
kings, popes, and faith are served by
peasants and workers
Newton rises on pre-Chicago shoulders
Galileo, Copernicus speak
1831
Darwin, the Beagle his home for 5 years and 40 000 miles
fossils, geology, natural history, a thousand specimens,
he studies; he thinks and slowly, very slowly, plans the attack
blind cave fish, pigeon breeding in Egypt--3000 years ago,
brachiopods 300 million years
Darwin looked what-why-how
Madeira beetles, Galapagos giants, where coral reefs and volcanoes do-si-do
a chorus of 1,000,000 beetle species
14 varieties of Galapagos finches,
hundreds of centenarian giant tortoises,
a halleluiah from a thousand barnacles
island birthing eruptions supplying the rhythm
100,000,000 fossils are rocked in ecstasy as
Darwin roars, his weapons wonder, joy, and perpetual change
Watson & Crick and Mendel de-shadow the grave yard
whistle 3 part harmony--deoxyribose nucleic acid
Origin and Natural Selection ends the rule
of good-book-badged clerics
their emperor struts naked
until carried away for indecent exposure
only to rise again ready for another plucking
we are in love again with patterns, change,
with sonar using Grey whales
with Super-earths found in space,
with beautiful mysteries
14 billion years in the making, and
always one more question to answer
I write your name with birds
flying, swimming, running
three dimensional living
where time runs forward forward
penguin feeding in one degree water
mating then dancing the spiral mambo salsa
sung by Julia Cruz on ice
an albatross carried north
lost life in shambles--mate missing
her universe an
ancient mariner mystery
a herring gull attacking fall sunbathers
fast food snack
somehow knowing
no more easy meals ‘til May
ancient bird giant with eagle's bloody beak
your bones too heavy for the third dimension
wings and form not water bound
legs that can run with Secretariat
and feast with T-rex
your fossilized bones dream of Patagonia steppes and Jurassic Park
Yes these left over dinosaurs
holding on, opportunistic
ready to party or weep or sing
to shine and rise and rise
and name names