CRISPR’s Creation Story
Written By: Arden Falker DNA unwinds in strings binding helix twisting into definition, that which we become.
CRISPR’s Creation Story
Written By: Arden Falker
DNA unwinds in strings
binding helix twisting
into definition, that which
we become. Genetic code
accumulated in strands
of individuality. Sequences split,
shifting features, a refined
jawline, blue eyes with golden
speck. If you can dream it,
you can design; a child,
Build-a-Bear come to life
with admirable traits. Track star,
Adonis. We pick and choose.
Malpractice, designing things
we don’t comprehend. I want
the perfect child, to live
vicariously through them
with traits that make up
none of us. Rather the whole,
not the parts. We build
a future, mutually exclusive
alternatives we seek control
over things out of our hands.
Wresting who we are from our
Creator, creation complex. We spew
our spaghetti code. Four eyes, two
noses. Come alive, that which we have made, cover your eyes and cower
in the corner, bear your creation.
Look at him, dare to speak
on what you made. Gene editing
gone awry, now we’re but a remnant
of the future we designed.
Arden Falker is a poet from rural Minnesota who explores the fault lines where memory, place, and language collide. His work appears in Mania Magazine, The Chimes (Shorter University), and Slash Magazine and is forthcoming in The Phoenix, The Unhoused Anthology (Prolific Pulse Press), Rundelania, and An Inkslinger’s Observance (IU).