DNA
In the science lab, the machine spins
tiny bottles loaded with blood
spinning to separate red from white
finally loosening a glistening glycerin molecule
held aloft when lifted by
the scientist’s tongs - so light
and yet so heavy
then slipped, slid, slithered
into a slender thread laid out in lines on
another machine that reads the coil of life
whose curves transmit our living
history to the scientist’s eyes
who searches for the past
a marker of the man who journeyed
away from Africa to here
First the father then the son
then the next who begat the next and the next
to my father who begat me
the “y” tells the story of the few
who marched out of Africa
and step by step
through Iraq, Iran, and Asia
across the Bering Sea
came here and begat the first of us
joined later by the rest of us
who trekked a different route
Where will we journey now
and who will read our DNA?
Mary Joan Meagher, June 29, 2009
tiny bottles loaded with blood
spinning to separate red from white
finally loosening a glistening glycerin molecule
held aloft when lifted by
the scientist’s tongs - so light
and yet so heavy
then slipped, slid, slithered
into a slender thread laid out in lines on
another machine that reads the coil of life
whose curves transmit our living
history to the scientist’s eyes
who searches for the past
a marker of the man who journeyed
away from Africa to here
First the father then the son
then the next who begat the next and the next
to my father who begat me
the “y” tells the story of the few
who marched out of Africa
and step by step
through Iraq, Iran, and Asia
across the Bering Sea
came here and begat the first of us
joined later by the rest of us
who trekked a different route
Where will we journey now
and who will read our DNA?
Mary Joan Meagher, June 29, 2009
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