How the Frogs Survived, the Last Time the World Ended

You think of them as fragile,
maybe,
newts, frogs,
with their wide eyes and soft wet skin—
and they are,
maybe,
but one thing about amphibians:
they estivate.
When times are bad—
real bad:
droughts, heat waves, volcanoes and ash clouds and ice ages—
they dig down beneath the mud
dry out
and wait
and wait.
Wait it out.

There are stories
—yes, I know, just anecdotes—
of places in the Mojave
where it hasn't rained in a hundred years
and yet frogs come out of the ground like magic
after that once-in-a-century rain.

That is how the frogs outlived the dinosaurs:
when the long winter came,
and there was no forage,
only acid rain,
only pale traces of sunlight
filtered through clouds of ash;
they dug down,
hid,
waited.
The dinosaurs,
kings of their world,
died.
The frogs,
—those frail, fragile frogs—
survived.

So now,
what should we think?
Should we worry?
Because the frogs
are digging
deep.









Geoffrey A. Landis is a scientist, a science-fiction writer, and a poet. His novel Mars Crossing (from Tor Books) won the Locus award for best first novel in 2001, and a short story collection, Impact Parameter (and other quantum realities), came out from Golden Gryphon. His science fiction stories have been translated into nineteen languages. He is currently a nominee for the Hugo award for his story "The Sultan of the Clouds." He lives with his wife, science-fiction writer Mary A. Turzillo, and four cats. Additional information can be found on his webpage: http://www.geoffreylandis.com. (Photo courtesy of Stanley Schmidt)