June 14: The Finch Response

Galapagos’s tortoises maintain

An interesting reflex when a bird

Alights upon them, it’s as if the brain

Declares all other stimuli deferred-

They haul their massive carapaces high

As short and stump-like legs will them allow,

With necks upraised, gravity to defy,

As still as figurehead upon ship’s prow.

This unresponsive state lets native finches

Pick off the shedding skin and parasites

Upon its most discriminative inches

Sans inadvertent startling into flight.

Yet sleep’s descent I cannot yet allow

Whil...