Thank You, Frank

It was not the ploy of a crank,
Nor yet put forth as a prank;
        To declare that clines
        Contradict designs
Was quintessentially Frank.

The forests of Africa's west
Put human wits to the test,
        The perpetual shade
        Of the openest glade
Made farming a problem at best.

Now everyone fully agrees,
When farmers cut down the trees,
        The puddles allowed
        Bred bugs by the cloud
Which spread the lethal diesase.

As Livingstone had said,
Those consequences led
        The gene for S
        To answer the stress
And follow malaria's spread.

But the gene for S is just one,
And each other trait will run
        On a separate course
        To provide the source
Of the patternless picture that's done.

Unrelated pressures call
Each adaptive trait to fall
        In the separate clines
        That selection defines;
So there are no races at all.

Thank You, Frank!         

from C. Loring Brace
University of Michigan