Speciation Is Cyclical Poem by F R Wills

Just as surface area increases and
So the surface area to volume ratio
Increases. I feel the heat flow
Out of me when I see your eyes

They say natural selection could
Explain your eyes. Perhaps some
Ancestor we share had eyes
That did not resemble our own

These would have prevented
This ancient's ability to get
What he needed- mates,
Food, territory. Out competed

And dead. Survival of the fittest.
And yet, no science can explain
The heavy yet light feeling
That fills my stomach when I see you.

Just as animals who live in harsh
Conditions have thicker skin
I have gained one due to the
Pain they have caused me

Body fat they need makes me feel
Ugly. Not insulation, but lack of
Exercise. My insulating coat is
My parka. My camouflage is contouring

To hide from the predators. Or the prey?
Or maybe I'm more like the desert cacti
Spikes to stop water loss through
Transpiration or tears?

Stops the predators. My body
Can't store the water that spills
Over my eyelids somehow,
When I am sad but is just excess

The only extensive root system that I have
Is my family, not bringing water
Sometimes helping retain, otherwise
The reason for it's spilling.

Perhaps I've become adapted
For a specific feature of my life
Are the walls I have built my thorns?
My shy glances away nothing

Like the warning symbols or
The poison of the natural
World. No, I warn them away
With my words or lack of them.

There was no lichen
To warn of the level
Of pollution in our love
I needed to have a living

Indicator of your sulphur
Dioxide lies. Invertebrate
Animals were not there
When you kissed me with

Your eyes open. Testing for
oxygen level even as I gasped
For breath. Or perhaps it was the
Non living indicators - temperature

Of your skin against mine. The
oxygen level between our lips
The rainfall of our tears muddying
Our love. Evolving romance between

Us turned to nothing. Survival of the
Fittest. I know that genes gave us
The varied characteristics, but science
Got it right when it mutated to form

The humans we are. Completely
Different in species to our simpler
Ancestors. Natural selection
Because of variation and

Competition. Just as I competed
For your attention and craved
Your varied smiles. Darwin.
Rapid changes that occurred

Due to our change of environment.
Mutated but still perfect. Separated
So we both varied to different environments
Eventually through natural selection

We grew too distant, too changed
Different species now. Even if we met
Our love would only come to nothing
- a barren love that could bring nothing.

If only I could have fossilised
The look in your eyes
But love is soft and doesn't
Preserve well. Weathering

From another girl's lips. Not
Even the claws and bones of
The arguments remain, they've
Been replaced by the minerals

Of the mascara that runs down
My face as I let myself cry.
Not even a rootless trace
Or a footprint of our love remains.

Destroyed by the geological activity
Or was it the chemistry between you
That made you forget our history?
But maybe that's how life developed

Betraying the past for the sake of
The future. A future with her. Not me.
Our love is gone now. Lost. Passion
Had long been extinguished. Extinct.

Changes over geographical time
Or her eyes, distance between us.
Survival of the fittest. Doubt spread
Like a disease with no vaccination.

Love couldn't survive the new predator.
She was a more successful predator
A catastrophic event, I could not call it
And yet, ever so slowly, I lost you

Our love died. It was no volcanic
Eruption. There was no asteroid.
Only her. Only you and I but not
Us, separated. Speciation is

Cyclical. Two populations -
Separated. A divide between our
Love. Not only empty sheets. But
A mountain range, a river.

Genetic variation and the
Natural selection that I could
Not win through competition.
Alleles favoured her and not me

Nature selected her for you.
Now we couldn't love successfully
We have become far too different.
Almost different species. Extinct.