Decoding the Y Chromosome
If you place a few toy trucks with two small boys,
they will likely weave these into a screenplay
that will occupy the better part of an afternoon.
There will be drama and conquest and chase,
but often too, just when you think all hope is
lost in the heat of battle, generosity.
I know for a fact that if a parent, with the best
of intentions, withholds even toy guns
from these boys, they will make Bren guns and
M16’s from two-by-fours and dowel and glue.
And if you introduce dolls, they will shoot them.
I suspect when geneticists get to the very deep
of that male chromosome one day, they shall find
miniscule devices - little trucks and trains
and tracks that spiral up along the
phosphodiester backbone of the helix.
Little molar locomotives will be
winding their way along those tracks,
and little molecular men holding
molecular carbines will be
shooting electrons across the divide,
perhaps even imagining little molecular girls
over on the X, who would be looking on,
but pretending not to.