Zoo #15 – Aerophobia

A sideways look at age, Blogging, Colin McQueen - writer, Getting Older, Humour, Poetry, Real life through the kaleidoscope of age 1 Minute

Ostrich, emu, kiwi, rhea;
What on earth is happening here?
Whilst nature blessed a billion things,
The birds alone were blessed with wings.
The power to soar, to swoop, to fly,
They gave them up, I wonder why?
What could they see from on the ground
Was more than when they flew around?

Whilst other creatures scanned the sky
And dreamt of having wings to fly,
These birds developed legs for speed
Whilst wasted wings just atrophied.
Imagine finding when you hatch,
‘You are a bird, but here’s the catch,
Those tiny wings are useless, son,
But never mind, ‘cause you can run…’

I have never quite understood why evolution would rob an animal of its greatest gift, the power of flight.  Surely the ability to escape is evolution’s most powerful weapon.  It doesn’t matter how powerful a predator is if it cannot catch you.  You can bet your life that, given the chance of having wings, the lion would most certainly have accepted.  What kind of animal would give up such an advantage?  The kind that buries its head in the sand I think…

Published by colinmcqueen

Published

17 thoughts on “Zoo #15 – Aerophobia”

  2. Hi Colin! You are not alone. My daughter who is 3, asks me the same question and it is rather a difficult one to answer. My thoughts are that, perhaps it realised the benefit of being big and strong with huge talons outweighed those of being tiny and able to fly. Or maybe, it never reached there in the first place…i mean, it started growing wings, but never really finished the job…maybe they fell short of the raw material. Or may be their love for food fell in the way of the weight loss…

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Let me guess, you can never give up chocolate? Well, I would never…though, I gave up chocolate to b able to climb stairs…flying…I’ll go paragliding some day. Certainly not give up chocolate for thst…

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Upside Down Logic.
    The lonely Kiwi knew no skinks nor ravenous rats,
    Mongoose, stoats, no hungry dogs nor feral cats,
    Over millennia it became a big dumb flightless bird,
    If one stepped back in time, would one think it erred?

    Liked by 3 people

Comments are closed.