Darwin’s Finches

 

Speckled, dull black, grey, or green
the Geospitza Fortis
fly, mate, and play

over Galapagos
craggy cliffs
fitness is in their beaks

inherited for breaking
tough seeds
grown without water.

On their insular isle
they may have multiplied
for centuries,

but humans brought
Philornis downsi
on their heels.

Parasitic nest flies
that eat gaping young
multiplied

to every island
in the archipelago
Darwin didn’t calculate

how humans create
environments
too toxic

for even the best
of us
to survive.