A Poem for The Gene

How does a writer start a book?

Especially when it is a book about something
as complex as the story of what we are?
Of what makes us into us?
Of proteins and phenotypes.
Genes and enzymes.
RNA, DNA,
ribosomes, hemoglobin,
eugenics, natural selection,
genomic coding,
genomic engineering,
genetic disorders,
embryonic development,
Crick and Watson and Franklin
and the laws of
heredity.
. . .

. . .

How does a writer start a book? And keep it moving.
Start with Mendel and end with

How does he

keep it moving through

discussions of Darwin,

who was not bothered

by human descent from

apelike ancestors?

and the horrors of Mengele, 

whose putrefied experiments,

masquerading as science,

no scientist

could take seriously?

And right up to

the aspirations of science to

sequence our selves?

I have no idea how it's done.

(And then, there's this:)