Natural Selection first appeared in Poetic Justice in 1984.

Note: Barnacles begin life as free swimming crustaceans, but, at maturity, secrete the strongest known natural glue in which to secure their heads, and for the rest of their lives they remain stationary, kicking food into their mouths, using their legs as syphoning filters for plankton.

🔊 🎵

NATURAL SELECTION

I could not stick my head in glue

to feed and wait with barnacles,

or seek security among

aggregate anemones,

or anchor to tomorrow with sedentary polyps,

or browse with slugs,

or cling to rocks,

or maintain the perpetual

defensiveness of urchins,

or achieve “being realistic”

with camouflaged bottom dwellers,

or remain isolated in a shell.

I float on my colors,

moved by current desires,

developing backbone

to swim effortlessly

in the ocean of possibility.