Darwin's Scope

To get it right, he had to become an actor,

create the illusion that this event glistened

unfolding now for the first time. He had to

listen to the other actors, listen

to the world's voices as if he had never heard

what they had to say. He saw all the way to the end

and beyond. Beneath, around the secret words,

past the scope of where we'd gone before, transcended

mystery and wonder to what was more awesome still:

the way the earth came into being, facts,

conclusions he did not want to know, revealed,

fossils from an earlier life. He packed

them up and sent them home, crate after crate,

back to England-the bones of his dead faith.