What We Carry
by Tim Thornburgh
Genetic research shows
that we all carry
inside every cell of our bodies
an organelle called
Mitochondrial DNA,
Which we inherited
biologically from the first lady
named by Geneticists as Eve,
The ancestral grand, many times
grandmother of us all.
So, we are cousins
from different mothers and fathers,
yet we share that common ancestry.
We can now say, you are my brother,
Or you are my sister,
O, that you are my cousin,
knowing our shared ancestry,
Despite our many differences
as we as a species evolved
across the past two hundred thousand years.
Yes, each of us is unique:
Some tall, some tiny, some tanned, some dark,
Yet when we smile,
We show just a glimmer,
Of what we inherited,
From Eve.
***
Tim Thornburgh is a poet who graduated from Seattle University and shortly thereafter joined the Peace Corps. Tim was sent to Micronesia and served as a high school teacher of English and History. Later Tim worked as a grants writer and program manager working in Yap, Pohnpei, Saipan, Dayton, Ohio and the Philippines. Tim's poetry has been published in literary magazines: San Fernando Poetry Journal, TrashLight Press, Haight Ashbury Poetry Journal, Four Tulips, Sublimation, AfterThought Literary, Amelia, Lowlife Lit Press Humanidat, and 7th Circle Pyrite.
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