Analog SFF, March 2011 by Dell Magazine Authors

Author:Dell Magazine Authors
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dell Magazines

Poetry: DARWINFISH by Kate Gladstone

* * * *

* * * *

The swamp's air-breathing daughter climbed up to solid ground.

Her legs were short and stubby, but they let her get around.

She could have slithered homeward when the rain returned in fall.

She said: “I'll check this new world out"— She's mother to us all.

—

The swamp's air-breathing daughter crawled off in search of food,

But first she had to catch it, and then it must be chewed.

The winged, wiggling creatures so often got away,

Some bugs and plants just made her ill, but we're alive today.

—

The swamp's air-breathing daughter had skin that felt the sky:

The wind that scorched or chilled her and always left her dry.

She sought out shade and coolness to keep the moisture in,

And lived—although, like some of us, she wished for thicker skin.

—

The swamp's air-breathing daughter laid eggs that needed wet:

A shell around a zygote must wait for eons yet.

Reluctant to the swamp she crawled when breeding time arrived.

She laid her eggs and swam away, and somehow we survived.

—

The swamp's air-breathing daughter left remnants of her shape

In lizard, bird, and mammal from tree shrew to great ape.

Though some who share her DNA deny the past therein,

The evidence won't go away that we are all her kin.

—Kate Gladstone

Copyright © 2010 Kate Gladstone

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