Sherry Heim's last posting has inspired me to write this peom. It was about the passing away of a 176-year old tortoise in an Australian Zoo. It is said that Charles Darwin had brought the tortoise to England at a tender age of few years but that had transpired to be incorrect as Darwin never visited the place from which the tortoise had been brought. This poem is dedicated to Steve Irwin and his wife Terri who are considered to be the owners of the Zoo in which Harriet had died and who regarded Harriet as a member of family. I greatly admire all men and women who had contributed to the progress of mankind including Darwin though I don't believe in his Theory of Evolution. My meager respect to him emantes from the fact that he had spent years and years to know facts about how human being came into being. Anyway I have to admit that I felt some sadness over the death of Harriet after Sherry's posting. That was the time I came to know about the event.

Harriet was thought to be a male
But she turned out to be female
She was believed to be a Galapagosian
But she proved to have her origins elsewhere
Harriet's death is a pain to history
As she was a history living in history
With her Harriet had carried a message
She would deliver it to Charles Darwin
"Great men of science and arts" she would begin
"were remembered with fervor and respect
Upon the foundations they had laid down
Man had made progress to build life upon
But your Theory of Evolution hasn't gone far
Over the long period I had lived
No ape had ever evolved into a mankind
Nor did I see someone ending his apeship tenure
No ape had lost a tail or changed status
Like dissipating clouds in a summer sky
Your theory was driven away in the dark
Certain problems need time to be solved
while certain theories need time to be disporved"