Fernandina

Black lava painted with verdant mangroves
The jealous sealions guard their sapphire pools,
Clumsy cormorants tender in love
Share their gifts of the sea,
Yellow sparks of warbler
Dance among the trees,
Tiny dragons dream upon the rocks
Ageless, asleep in the dying sun.

© 2019 Maggie Grimes

As a biology teacher I have to be honest. Fernandina doesn’t have saddleback tortoises like the one in the painting. That’s actually Lonesome George who was the last survivor of the Pinta tortoises. Gone now, too. I never wrote a poem about Pinta but I think I saw George at the research center on Santa Cruz. He deserves to be remembered. MJG