To some of us, a tortoise lives on land <br />while turtles only rarely leave the sea. <br />‘Chelonians' applies to any brand, <br />so here I'll use this terminology. <br /> <br />Land dwellers share aquatic ancestry <br />and most of us decided to stay put. <br />Chelonians agreed to disagree. <br />A flippered revolution was afoot. <br /> <br />A late Triassic turtle fossil shows <br />a hard-shelled belly plate and softer back, <br />presumably to ward off fatal blows <br />from deeper-dwelling predators' attack. <br /> <br />Did top shell metaphorically ‘dissolve' <br />when full-shelled forebear sought the sea's embrace? <br />Or did an unshelled forebear's shell evolve <br />in oceanic pilgrimage retrace? <br /> <br />Genetic sleuthing points to latter case. <br />The evidence suggests that once again, <br />the tortoise forebears left their liquid space <br />and plodded (swam?) to shore with sigh, 'amen'. * <br /> <br />From sea to shore to sea to shore once more. <br />You'd surely think a record lies therein. <br />Yet maybe making not three trips but four <br />is water loving cousin terrapin. <br /> <br />When next you gaze with love in tortoise eyes <br />and wonder at his mind's soliloquy, <br />from languid, longing looks you may surmise, <br />he's pondering ‘To sea or not to sea'.<br /><br />Diane Hine<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-interesting-ancestry/
