TO UR

 

The scene opens in Gene Heaven, whatever anybody could imagine that to be.  Mother Gena enters.  She is brassy and a bit disorganized and wears a moo-moo.  Perhaps she has a cauldron she's dropping things into like batwings and beaks,  and a recipe book covered with dust.  Or maybe she's in a space age laboratory with fifty computers and walls of controls with blinking lights. 


MOTHER GENA:

              Reproduce!

Go thee forth and

Sprout and spawn.

Since the dawn

Of time I’ve drawn

You each to each

To mate

Oh zygote.  Oh gamete.

Blend!   And each time conjugate

Your genes anew.

I’ve thrown in traits

And lusts and tastes,

Colors, statures, eye-shapes, gaits.

I’ve tried on wings and tails and toes,

Opposable thumbs

And the Roman nose.

When this earthly coil

Is shuffled off

The double spiral

Of the genome stuff

Lives on in babes and pups and pods.

It works.  Who knew?  What were the odds?

The whole thing’s packed with sperm and stamen

So there’s room for error,

But I must insist

To the point of terror

That to multiply

Is a creature’s fate.

I’ve little use for the reprobate.

Allow me, then, to iterate

To introduce

As if t’were new

The gist of what I expect from you  -

Reproduce!  Reproduce!