Lessons from Darwin: Not for Love

Humanist, Nov-Dec, 2005 by Philip Appleman

"Contemplate a tangled bank ..."

--Charles Darwin

   It is yes a green shimmer of beauty,
   Of butterfly flashes of lemon,
   The perfume of virginal roses,
   And larks lifting lyrics to heaven ...

   And yes the larks love butterflies (for breakfast)
   Raccoons love meadowlarks (at midnight dinners)
   Roses hug their neighbors (till they wither)
   Nature breeds good nature (in her winners).

   So Brahmins bless the beggars on the Ganges,
   Commisars kiss virgins in Havana,
   Massahs guard their nigras in Montgomery,
   And realtors praise the trees in Indiana.

   Moral:
   True love suffers long and is kind of
   pathetically prone to be docile.
   Darwin's advice to the prone is:
   Beware of becoming a fossil.