This poem is taken from PN Review 41, Volume 11 Number 3, January - February 1985.
PoemsDARWIN'S GREEN BILE
After meals for years he vomited
The bile of his discovery
Diagnosis: the wrong temperament.
Square peg in a round hole we call it
This gigantic discovery sitting on
The forehead of a happy temperament.
Wisdom in it? Nature's
Way of getting the message across
A man so mild, such a happy disposition
That the discovery would not go away
But leap over decade after decade
Being worn down by Darwin's reasonableness.
A small price for a kind of pregnancy
And the bile was clear, if you can call
Green clear, of impediment.
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