The Truth

About Origins

 

In the secret life codes

Ribbons complex

And crucial

Segment like fat rainbow caterpillars.

Adenine, cytosine,

Guanine, and thymine bases

Have muted

At positions

Marked by threads of numbers

And three letters

In the string of 569 letters

Denoting my mitochondrial sequence—

The essence of my life—

My history.

 

I wonder about the mutations

Unspecified

In my genetic journey

From Mitochondrial Eve

Born 150,000 years ago

In East Africa.

 

Are they responsible

For skin cells running wild

   the shape of my nose

     championing the underdog

Or my instinctual choice of fight

     over flight?

Are they the cause

    Of my affinity for the other—

Or perhaps my lack of faith

    Coupled with an unflinching desire

To be true

To what I know

As deep in the bone

As the code.

 

Did some sequence

Jumble like a misspelled word

As the strong women before me

Crossed the rugged Caucasus Mountains

In southern Russia

Moving on to the Steppes of the Black Sea?

 

And if it did,

What is the significance

To me and my descendents?

 

I am of the Haplogroup,

Subclade U4.

 

Which changes nothing.

 

                     —Katherine M. Searle
                       12 February 2009

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