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!