Biology is a fascinating subject, and it has everything to do with the future. It’s certainly time for the poets took notice, and to begin to write some poems that deal with the many aspects of biology.
Biological Destiny, a poem
by Emma Blue
Like newly hatched sea turtles
turning towards the rolling surf
or the dance of a honey bee
at the sight of a vibrant flower
all I need see is the outline of your form
and the pang begins deep down
in the very core of me;
I’d stare at you forever if you’d let me
content that I had found my destiny.
Biological Poetics, a poem
by the Eclectic Minstrel
i
My love is a red, red molecule—
a freshly minted DNA recombination
modified to accomplish
just the right twist of ambient effect.
ii
So deep in love am I
it must have taken
a million generations
of groping—
weeded, truncated
and filtered
through a future lens
that saw you coming.
iii
A piquancy
between pain and pleasure—
a taunt tension
that leaves me unable to move
as all you do
is gently lift your lips
and smile at me.
iv
A cell leaked
a little nucleic acid
which spilled out
some genetic instructions
and left my development
functioning in strange ways.
v
I knew a woman lovely in her chromosomes—
Enzymes, catalysts, and ribonucleic acid
worked together day and night
to induce visions of her ass
across my internal slate,
always drawing me in
and down there,
again and again,
where I never asked to be.
vi
Genetic speed bumps
that slow me down
and DNA curve balls
that throw me off balance.
vii
Your kiss, a catalyst—
biological manipulation—
generations of selective propaganda—
Nothing ever goes up. Instead,
it’s just teleology turned upside down.
God drives in reverse, didn’t you know?
The blind sculptor hews and shears—
he leaves your wet curves
and grooves that shimmer
as they cut
right through me.
viii
A twisted ladder
with slippery rungs
of deoxyribose sugar;
it’s sweet to taste
but bitter to swallow.
vix
And will you add me
genetically modified
into your fantasy?
I’m turning myself inside out.
I’m reversing polarity,
and each and every cell
is being resequenced.
This double helix
is being split asunder
and bound back again
into your love dream.
I’ll never recognize myself again,
but will it matter, if I have you?
x
Synthetic biology is
new combinations of genes
escaping
and getting into trouble.
xi
I’m staring at the future
in the mirror darkly
and I see
a giant vertical test tube
large enough for one person
but not two,
compatible ova
and surrogate mothers,
chronowombs
that speed up the process,
and deliberate engineering
from zygote
to germinal stage
to achieve a perfection
that only a spell
or a small miracle
could ever break.
xii
A drop of blood,
a skin flake,
a hair follicle
that falls from me—
they all leave a trail
far deeper
than I ever realized.
xiii
Wandering spot analysis,
two-dimensional chromatography,
dye-base sequencing,
and automated dissection—
It’s a long tide of nucleotide bases
washing up on the shore
and spelling out a lewd message.
Race, a poem
by Paul Bearer
A shared affinity for fascism
and a new nation forming
a biological conception of race
yields a positive evaluation.
It’s as easy as being born—
Now just sit in the classroom
and learn
how unworthy you are.
Telomere, a poem
by Marya Ophir
Biology—
it is an expansion,
a tension easing out.
Words are minted for excess,
and now there is something new
just around the corner.
I’m testing my thesis
but I’m holding my soul in stasis.
The practicalities of my own humanity
drown me in something deep.
It’s a dark wet place
where I continuously fall
upwards.
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