Typewriter Rodeo: My DNA Test Results Are Different Than My Brother’s

Each week, the Standard reaches out to Austin’s Typewriter Rodeo for a custom poem on Texas topics.

By David FruchterAugust 31, 2018 1:59 pm,

Modern technology can reveal secrets of the DNA that forms us, sometimes yielding surprises.

My DNA Test Results Are Different Than My Brother’s

with bated breath i wait

for that package in the mail

my DNA test

am i baboon or snail?

did i descend

from neanderthals

or vikings once gathered

in great drinking halls

what percentage of genes

came from africa

(though go back far enough

and that’s all of us all)

what parts did i get

from my father or mother

and oh why oh why

is the test of my brother

so different from mine

what shadowy past

did my parents not mention

what die did they cast

to get us two children

we’re like night and day

but we won’t ever know

’cause our folks just won’t say…