Natural Selection

A turtle rises
From the rippled lake
And creeps slowly
On the muddy bank
Crawling and scratching
With dinosaur toes
Wallowing in muck
Crawling and scratching
By its right to reproduce
To bring tiny turtles
Into cruel existence
As his father
And his father's father did
Crawling and scratching
Up this same bank--
A line of turtles
Back beyond memory
To the first turtle born
In this motherland of muck
In this universe of spring