Today is National DNA Day. How about writing a poem about this topic?
Genealogy
I filled out my family tree
like a tournament bracket—
and I’m the Champion.
My final four grandparents
from the sweet sixteen great-greats
all precisely aligned
to produce me, but I’m not the apex
and neither is my species.
Evolution didn’t finish with Darwin.
Just like we made the Labradoodle
and peppered moths with darker wings,
we’re breeding better bedbugs
and selecting our own successors
but I wouldn’t call it intelligent design.
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
Bartholomew Barker, Poet 
Love it!
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Thanks!
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Great poem. Now tell the truth – is that chart from a school assignment?
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Thanks and no, I was interested in genealogy even as a boy.
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OK, not school. But you were young. Half point. :)
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