The Human Genre Project


Index of first lines (poetry only)

A

After we said goodbye to Dad,
Generativity — Abi Wyatt

aunt rosie loved summer and baseball
aunt rosie — Regina Green

B

Body chilled by years of neglect,
Coming in Second — Ruth Sabath Rosenthal

By now I've come to parse the human frame
An Observation — Niall Murphy

C

class on genetics –
Haiku /Senryu for the Human Genre project — Juliet Wilson

clipped
Crazy Quilt — John Morris

creatures, a foot
FOXP2 — Richard Alan Herbert

D

Duplications here
Chromosome 17 — John Marcinauskis

E

epitaphs illegible,
Boneyard — Tom Moritz

F

For a time, the babies died so fast
Ogbanje (or ‘Children who come and go’) — Aiko Harman

From being to being in being borne
Helix in form — Neil Senzer

From the first blind belly kicks
Genome — Kevan Christmas

G

Genetics are the stories we tell:
Stories — Tracey Rosenberg

Girl walks into a bar.
Last Town on the Map — Chaya Bernstein

God’s lost.
Onion root tip through a microscope — Kenneth S. Robson, M.D.

H

How am I meant to encourage you
Stones — Aiko Harman

How like your wife
Grandfather — Ruth Sabath Rosenthal

Hunger sends us seeking its cheap white thickness,
Three Poems — Rebecca Goss

I

I am round and warm in the tide
Recapitulation — Niall Murphy

I fluster along the diagonal beach, I grab and cram,
Photophobia — Tracey S. Rosenberg

I was ready to run
Chromosome 2: love remembered — Chris S. Packard

I'm a DNA Cowboy
The DNA Cowboys — Mike Holmes

I've got lots of energy
Genetic Love Song — Michael Dare

if I put words on paper
double strands — Angie Werren

In beginning,
The Meme Gene — Julian Derry

In methodical dreams
Natural Cypher — Mark Stratton

Is an ancestor of the Mimivirus
Inchoate Origins — Karen Booth

L

Lengthened gene on the short arm,
Fragile X — Nick Wood

Like drums of air or swirling sea-tunnels or
Plans for Land — Martin MacInnes

M

Meet me at the speed of light, where mass
Meet Me at the Speed of Light — Laura-Gray Street

Mother sleeps, wilting in her Gerry chair,
Logan Square East, Philadelphia PA — Ruth Sabath Rosenthal

My barbed wire of DNA
Barbed Wire — David C. Sands

My father’s angina, we learned, was a serious myocardial infarction
Jargon — Kelley Swain

my niece she was
For Jaimee — Jay Coral

S

She flops beside me.
Trisomy 21 — Ellie Stewart

she wrote ‘shagetti’ on the shopping list
mam — Elaine Findlay

Simply Simon,
Chromosome 21 — Cindy Morris

Something to look forward to: chocolate cake,
Anticipation — Caroline Litman

T

The best way of surviving the recession is coma. You can let the bills stack up in the hallway while you’re in a coma. You won’t be charged for coma services until you wake up. Otherwise, sleep long and hard using the nod reaming technique. It’s free and time passes. Make love slowly while you’re surviving the recession.
Surviving the recession — Dave Lordan

The birds have it.
Communication Breakdown — JF Derry

The guide shushes us at the edge. Beyond
Primate Center, Duke University — Laura-Gray Street

The soles of human feet, in utero
Callus — Tiel Aisha Ansari

The water nymph who named the curse
Ondine's Curse — Aiko Harman

These chromosomes look so much like teeth,
The teeth that rock above the cradle — Ian Watson

They say it’s all in the eyes; not true.
The Long Arm of the Law — Joanne Key

This chromosomal Usual Suspects line:
Chromosome 13 — Adam Roberts

Time said      to the
the telomeric tale of the mouse's tail (after carroll) — shardcore

Too many chromosomes a fault before birth,
Accident of Birth — Wendy French

V

Veiled in shafts of light,
The Oncologists — Patricia Ace

W

When Gehrig lost his budding baseball fame,
A Cause Célèbre — Aiko Harman

When the sun stole her skin
The Illustrated Lady — Aiko Harman

Y

you are not an animal
joseph merrick’s bones — Angie Werren

your photograph:
Chemistry — Brian Holton