Galapagos

 

 

 

 

Wandering through Westminster Abbey,

this long-bearded fellow leaning

against a gravestone, arms folded,

looks at me like we’d been talking for hours.

 

I.

My son’s feet are wider than mine

and mine wider than my father’s.

He needs the girth to control

the accelerators and brakes,

he’s not mobile without them.

We all duck under colonial doors and mourn

over graves wider than our grandfather’s.

You know, organisms will increase

faster than the food supply,

but many young then die to control

the population.

 

I’m reminded of all the Food Fairs

and Acmes at home and wonder

if they build them to keep up

or we procreate to make sure

they have customers.

I think about the gangs and drive-bys

and governments and presidents

treating children like cattle.

 

II.

Those that possess the characteristics

most useful in their environment

 produce more offspring.

They pass on those attributes

to the next generation,

ultimately creating new forms

so different in structure and behavior

that they can’t breed or communicate

with the originals.

 

At home we preach racism and hate

and are lied to by leaders sent by God.

We have progressed to total apathy

to the subversion of truth.

We no longer need the Bill of Rights,

that was for the short guys,

we need a Patriot’s Act and the fear

of terrorists who hate us for

our superior characteristics.

 

III.

He says to call him Charles

and he is much more animated now.

He strokes his beard and seems to wonder

whether I understand.

 

You are like giant tortoises driving cars

that widen your feet and ass.

You have evolved over two hundred years

not as specie but as bloated Americans,

hated for your size and strength

and for the deaths of unknown

sons and daughters.

You are willing to give your own

for oil and revenge so as not to lose face

 or mobility in the driveway.

Do you think your new-selves could discuss

the needed cultural abilities of today

with the founding fathers of 200 years ago?

What language would you use?

Do you think they would feel

dwarfed at the meeting?

Do you think they would even come?