Within the depths of tangled coils,
where heritage in secret lies,
there spreads a web of mystic lines
that sets the bounds of being’s size.
There stands the quantum of amazed mankind,
who dares to probe the world’s own soul,
driven by the thirst of time,
and scars the code of life’s deep scroll.
Unknowing measure, end, or stay,
he cuts through words and fate alike,
in hope: “A bodiless world shall rise—
what rots, we’ll cast into the fire.”
But is the flesh a flawed design,
and reason some almighty guest?
What lives without a human heart
must surely turn to wrath and pest.
Defect and virus may be slain—
yet where does global danger lie?
All that in nature’s script is placed
is what must be, though stars may cry.
You rule us now — then be our guide,
a wiser brother, not our lord:
not soulless master of the code,
nor courtly knight of sharpened sword.
Make boundless changes, shape the whole—
but do not kill the living soul.
Lest man become a machine with end,
become Creator — weave and rhyme the Spiral*.
* the DNA micro-molecule
P.S. Dedicated to the revolutionaries of genetic engineering
and the creators of CRISPR-Cas9