Charles Darwin in the Morning

Enthusiasm busting out in the subtle form of punctuation,

You spilled your heart between the commas

And the exclamation you just couldn't resist.

A part of that curious time,

Change sweeping in like a new-fangled flying machine 

Or a fast-running current or a tide.

Terrifying. Wonderful.

Discovery of ancient life leading to a world of new eyes,

Guesses & skepticism & hope, & fearing accusations of lies--

The foundations of science,

All roiling and growling and growing and growing and growling.

The West wasn't the only Wild,

In the soil of the lawn, in the mosses and the trees, 

in earthworms and everything singing,

Mysteries sprang up everywhere.

So much to learn, a whole field to explore!

Always learning, always working, wondering more,

Yet known for just one thing.

ECO

"Throw up a handful of feathers, and all must fall to the ground according to definite laws; but how simple is this problem compared to the action and reaction of innumerable plants and animals which have determined, in the course of centuries, the proportional numbers and kinds of trees now growing on an old Indian ruin!"

~Charles Darwin, On Natural Selection