LatinosUSA

I think of Darwin in his Down House study

Surrounded by smudged sketches of different kinds of finch,

Being flown back, in a moment, to simpler ancestors

Who slept in kapok trees and bonded by picking fleas

From each other’s hazel-haired backs, and squeezing hands,

And caressing each other’s naked bodies,

As if each were startled babies needing nothing much . . .

Just knowing that the world will care for them,

That the world will hold them

Even as their tantrums tear their vocal chords,

That the world loves them and shows them this with touch . . .

And so we undress, and so we touch, and so we fly back,

In those moments, two bonobos, not in kapok tree branches

But in a Deluxe Bedroom at the Premier Inn in Paddington,

The setting Savannah sun shining trademark purple,

The Empire-era edifices incomprehensible

Beyond the glass.

Author bio: Lucius Falkland is the nom de plume of a writer and acadmic originally from London. His first volume of poetry, The Evening The Times Newspaper Turned Into Jane Eyre, is published by Exeter House Publishing.