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Beget, Begat, Begot
In this classroom of jangling hair colors
bare arms and legs, chattering, some of it toothless
or banded, shrill sopranos, freckles, lispers, liars
whisperers and monkey faces, are those whose
voices will never break and who will grow up
to be hairdressers, fashion designers, have same-sex
marriages with offspring from surrogate mothers
We’re all accidental really, aren’t we?
x and y chromosomes meeting on
street corners, on shared bus seats or
behind the curtains of some online dating site
Except for the Hapsburgs and a couple of
isolated pygmy tribes in undiscovered jungles
and they don’t actually count in the pink, yellow,
brown, ping pong ball lotto machine swing of things
But it does matter, doesn’t it, proud to be Irish,
Mormon, Norwegian, Phoenician who can
trace his gene pool back to Hannibal
all holding our little flags and history books
defending our strips of territory like
urinating, growling dogs
So children, for homework today, I’d like you
to write an essay or a poem – something original
inspired by today’s discussion – entitled, perhaps,
Beget, Begat, Begot – or something like that
© Johnmichael Simon
2014
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