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species: wahlberg’s epauletted fruit bat (epomophorus wahlbergi)
genus: epomophorus (eleven species)
a song of ripening:
the transformation of a tree
takes place with grace and subtlety.
it integrates sunlight and showers,
drinking the clouds into its flowers.
there’s nothing more enlightening
than to be present for the ripening!
its fragile petals slowly morph
into green fists grasping a core.
i circle the grove night after night
patiently checking with each flight
until the fruit begins to deepen,
showing the pulp’s begun to sweeten.
i wait for these hard hearts of stone
to soften when they are full grown.
there’s nothing more enlightening
than to be present for the ripening!
if i’m inattentive, i’ll have missed it,
impressions where the sun has kissed it,
others who waste all their time rushing
miss the magic of a tree’s blushing,
metamorphizing its phenotype
as all its fruit become dark and ripe.
it’s an enchanted time window
as these bombs of nutrition grow
before their skin bursts and explodes
dispersing the tree’s dna code
to mulch into the forest loam.
i am patient. i do not roam.
i wait until the precise moment
before the juices start to ferment,
that point when the tree’s fully bedecked in
luscious and mushy, blushing and beckon-
ing bundles, oh the ripening!
there’s nothing more enlightening
than to be present for the ripening!
i am writing one poem for every species of mammal on earth, starting with bats! did you know that almost every ecosystem on earth was shaped, in part, by bats? Subscribe to the poetry ark newsletter for a celebration of animals, colorful illustrations, philosophy that will make you go hmm, facts that will make you go wha-huh?, and lots of fun. when i finally finish the 1,500 bat poems, we are going to have a big party and I want you to be a part of it!
