From Marius,
In tribute to the passing of Lonesome George, the last Galapagos Tortoise, this week – I wrote a memorial/did a portrait.
Goodbye Lonesome George
Good-bye Lonesome George
Born when the Titanic
Sank beneath the icy waves,
Witness to a hundred years of loss.
Born to be a storied creature of
Galapagos,
And sadly, sought by sailors for the soup,
They, only passing by, endlessly marauding
through their thoughtless days.
When did they find you, old soul,
Wandering the rocky crags of home,
Picked clean by invading ungulates and bipeds, yourself
Starving and alone?
Perhaps you were a frisky teen of 50
When they packed you off the island in a hurry,
to exhibit in a Quito zoo.
And what should have been a troubling issue of ourcollective shame,became
A curiosity for tourists.
And all the exotic ladies that they brought
From strange and varied tribes,
Were not enough to lure you from your grief.
What use to romance the moon
In the end of days?
And so you took a pass
On the second century that your kind are heir to –
And slipped beneath the waves of time.
Goodnight and good luck,
Sweet Lonesome George,
Good-bye.
I will dream you back to Paradise,
Or at least, try.