Darwin Was Seasick For The Entire 5 Years

by Wendy Taylor Carlisle

On the Beagle
in crepuscular light
wearing his human face
he made preparations
for the epiphany
wrapping himself
in the grace
of uncertainty
he kept a kind of
clenched excitement
in his notebooks
as if he knew
they were holding
a vision disproportionate
to their size.

Previously published in Calamus Journal