Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Kinship

 



KINSHIP

Banana, Bonobo, and Bumblebee
all share DNA with me!

Hickory, Cherry, Birch, and Oak
share DNA with me – no joke!

Humans differ by a tenth of a percent.
We’re exactly the same, for all intents.

Each life is connected in this way –
with common strands of DNA.


© Mary Lee Hahn, 2022


“Science has finally confirmed that human beings share genes with all living organisms.” p.20 in ALL WE CAN SAVE

What could be more hopeful than realizing that we’re literally all in this together? And what could be more anxiety-inducing to remember that one species has caused – and needs to repair – all the problems on our planet?

4 comments:

  1. It's sad that many continue to deny evolution. I wonder how they'll take this info? It is shameful that we're that one!

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  2. I love that you could embed such big truth in a poem and still be able to use rhyme and alliteration! I had to look up bonobo. Such a great word!

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  3. Oh how I love this one (and all the more for never having seen it!) So simple, so playful and surprising, so essentially, truly important. What if everyone had to recite this in order to, I don't know, get their driver's license, graduate high school, shop in a grocery store? Would anything change?

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  4. This would be such a fun one for reciting! And I can imagine my students would have been well pleased to be related to the playground trees...

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