While driving on vacation, one pleasant springtime day,
I found a place for breakfast, The Hitching Post Cafe.
I ordered eggs and bacon, and toast and coffee, too.
The waitress brought my order; then stopped, like stuck in glue.

The customers sensed something and gathered ‘round to see
Just what was in the breakfast, the waitress brought to me.
For she stared at my order, then, like she’d seen a ghost,
She cried out, “Lord have mercy! It’s Darwin on his toast!”

The faithful cried, “It’s Jesus! ‘Cause Mary has no beard.
The skeptics said, “What image?” Biologists all cheered.
The atheists saw Darwin. Agnostics were not sure.
Conspiracists had theories, some simple, some obscure.

Republicans said liberals had made the face appear.
And, if we lowered taxes, the face would disappear.
Amidst all this commotion, both certainty and doubt,
I smeared on jam and butter and ate it and walked out.

I headed for the highway and I have not returned.
And, if there was a lesson, it’s one we have not learned.
But they tell me a placard, outside the Hitching Post,
Says, “Here some old professor saw Darwin on his toast.”

Notes:

*The Hitching Post Cafe is located in Casmalia, CA, on Highway 1. It served
as the setting for one scene in the movie, “Sideways.” My wife and I have been
there once. (from Carol: I took a picture of Steve under the sign for the Cafe)
*In this society, visions are usually of Jesus or Mary. In other societies, with other
gods, the visions are different. Science expands the range of possibilities.