Title: Adaptation

During a year of significant life changes, I wanted to explore the idea that evolution is not necessarily synonymous with linear growth and adaptation is not always associated with gain.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the Mexican tetra

No eyes no pigment

You are unfinished art

Iridescent and gummy

Famed for your lack

A model organism, they call you

Evolution’s poster child

Mutated beauty

I wonder what Plato would say about you, little blind cave-dweller

Thousands of years of darkness and hypoxia

No one said adaptation did not demand sacrifice

NICOLE VARDA is a first-year medical student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix. When she’s not studying (or procrastinating studying), she enjoys reading science fiction, writing poetry, spending time with family and friends, and purchasing overpriced coffee at new spots downtown.