Julie's Sharebook 

 "Lonesome George"

Every now and then George closes
his eyes for a few centuries ...
the stars stop for the occasion

and the sun goes out,
his night lit only by dream

"Hello, big boy," she says,
shell new and lustrous,
green as the deep sea;
and her eyes
deep as the dark gems
that glow deep
where it roots...

George, lifting his nose
skyward
still seeing her
behind his closed eyes

moves forward

slow as lava oozing
from the bottom
of the sea his scaled feet

arch like trees first planted
then pulled up from
their roots...

"I'm coming," he says. 
                                                              
                                    Written by, Steve Campbell

"Lonesome George" is the name given by biologists to
the largest of the few surviving male Galapagos Tortoises
of a species indigenous to one of the islands in the group.
There are no surviving females.