Darwin’s Creatures

The yellow eyes of a blue-footed booby

are open as it dives, to observe 

its own plume of ocean with the descent

of a community upon a shoal,

to return to nests of black lava,

to choose which sibling will survive.

Still, a mother turns to the sun,

as if it was the face of hope against

the disappearance of an island. 

The struggle for life is a plastic flow

churned below the lithosphere - 

the movement of mantle, flux; 

vents that rupture. It reminds me

that everything is broken, and we are

all Darwin's creatures in essence,

yet there is this faith we cling to - 

perhaps the most human of fault lines -

and trust enough to love again, 

to dance for it, blue-footed, 

even upon a fired earth. 
 

Image is from here: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue-footed_Booby_(4885194032).jpg

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Darwin_volcano.jpg

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Darwin_01.jpg

Plus, if you have time and haven't seen it before, please watch them dance.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lcPHFQP9GN0

Also their chicks are almost as adorable as albatross chicks:

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue-footed_Booby_(Sula_nebouxii),_Galápagos_Islands,_Ecuador_-_chick_begging_for_food_(5736842411).jpg