Zoonomia - Charles Darwin february,1837 Poem by Nick John Whittle

Every successive animal is branching upwards
Yet armadillos do not branch, they fly
In the face of natural selection
For they are much scaled and look like bugs. Why?
Man is intelligent, but is hampered by apology.
Can the sound of gnashing teeth
Produce something other than a child?

Trees branch but buds die and new ones are generated
And trees are old and live for an awfully long time;
Mammals live but a shorter time.
The Monads should be seen and not heard; explain.
When lands split do failed hybrids tremble with fear,
Or do they knuckle down and adapt?
The horse has four legs, the camel also four.

What on earth is there to define species of fish and birds?
One swims, the other flies, but neither says much.
Why would a fish climb a mountain?
The body w ants what the mind should gloss over, etc.
Man is an apology but wants for contempt,
He will never become a fish; no need.
And besides, the world is older than you think.

Are shrews the result of an intermarriage of wit?
Filthy, but yet one demands a fearless answer.
Graduation is slow, sheep are slower
And yet it gains friends and clotted hair by adaptation.
Native sheep have black faces and white fleeces
Australian sheep are brown and look like goats.
Are they goats? Perhaps they are goats.

The mothers and fathers of species live apart these days
Which perhaps makes the child sad and uneasy
Unless they fought and bickered.
But men have useless nipples, and matters of the heart
Flood in from when fossils roamed the earth,
And giant sloths took early adventures
When the caracara was once called a buzzard.

Insect tribes are gross, and are not giant quadrupeds.
Most harbour evil thoughts and have too many eyes
But something different in their smile.
Close come the feeders of the choice cuts; elemental
In the end, all is well, and we are alive at least.
But land once joined is now separate,
For it will move when it moves (an inch at a time)
And the porcupine will grow a new spine.

(From Codd's Wallop for the Soul)