Random Genetic Mutilation
October 31, 2017
Hohoho in the news this week I say
Embryos, human embryos,
In a laboratory secure of course
By competent paternal slightly condescending heads
Whose work (of course) is for the human good
Preventative or else remedial
Have put into their remit certain work with errant genes
Human genes, genes of human embryos,
(Are your marbles boggling yet?)
The news retailer, she nonchalantly gushed and said:
The faulty genes
They were removed and nature stood corrected
Twice did two different modifying events
Correct a faltering nature
The wizard scientists had glad
Proclaimed, the newsroom said, a new era is coming
As we stand awestruck at its door enthusing
In which hereditary, congenital, disease
By alteration of poor genes will be amended
Man mastering overall
Authoritative assuring afterword:
This natural selection will go just so far
As humankind desires it to and go no further
The people will decide its use, scope its extent
(These guys they were Americans after all)
Maybe they really said it, and maybe they lied
Within their hearts - or worse they were sincere?
The MOD, the NSA, and Russia too
Are lining up their dominoes to ready combat options
And render soldier mutants cannon fodder for the field
(The money for research just has to come from somewhere,
And marmalade benevolence spreads so watery very thin
With hardnosed backers)
But clone things born to battle, gun to shoot, in figures
To die like cattle…….
Remember here that cow who wanted to be eaten
What of that Mengele, a guy we all had thought we knew
Had had his number
And then there’s all that scifi movie entertainment juice
Which made us giggle and shudder
Uncomfortably and squirming anguished in our easy seats
Delighted in the horrid spectacle?
Lo, now our minds impounded are become receptacles
In which unwonted horrors really reel the silly senses
The news-teams, chatty women, glibly babble laxatively
Proclaiming new tomorrows oozing adulation’s praise
Singing an end to reason