A News Sonnet A Day for April 2010: 27

I've set myself a goal for National Poetry Month this year: Compose a sonnet based on a science-themed news story each day.

Today's installment takes its cue from "Scientists Get Bird's-Eye View of How Cuckoos Fool Their Hosts" at Science Daily.

Pattern Masters

A war is on in southern Zambia,
Fought not with bullets but with clever eggs,
Between the Cuckoo Finch and Prinia.
A study of their evolution pegs

Their struggles back some twenty million years,
When Finch first laid its oval, forged design
In nest of Prinia. That egg appears
To match the host's. When hatched, the Finch chicks dine

And outcompete the Prinia's own brood.
Such egg design grows more and more complex.
As Prinia's detection has improved,
It finds the counterfeits and then rejects.

This constant race of bird technology
Evolves an unmatched egg diversity.

Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other Journeys Promote Your Page Too







Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.) Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny Free downloads at the Deviations website and on Smashwords.

Go to Manybooks.net to access Covenant, Appetite, and Destiny in even more formats!

Participant, Operation E-Book Drop. (Logo credit: K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman.)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.