Poems From the Protoslime

A SELECTION OF THOMAS ROOS'S LYRICAL BIOLOGY

COUPLETS FOR COUPLING

Primordial germs, assorted ducts, Responding to gonadal flux, Within the range each gene directs Elaborate the proper sex.

Internal cycles, pineal cues, Programmed odors, shapes, and hues,

In a sequence hypothalamic, Lead to contacts het'rogamic.

Releasing hormone through the portal Starts the series supramortal;

Hypophyseal cells stop loafin', Emitting their gonadotrophin,

Testosterone intertubuli, Estrogens from folliculi,

The latter FSH induced Invoke a mood to be seduced,

The former, less inclined to vary, Makes its bearer rude and hairy,

The stimulus to its secretion Eggs on eggs unto completion.

Sweets to the sweet, to the rare the fair, Happily met the fertile pair.

Luteotrophin has played its role, Permitting soul to speak to soul.

SONG FOR A FIFTH INSTAR

(For Carroll Williams)

Think sadly for a little while On nymph and maggot juvenile Hormonal cripples without wingsCrawling, hopping, sexless things. Lament the giant caterpill' Whose telos molting can't fulfill, Condemned by chemojuvenescence To creep, not fly, an earthbound presence.

PROTOPLASMA

(For Jean and Peter Medawar)

How to find the ether vital, That which gives to clay requital? Probe the depths to traverse time! Seek abyssal protoslime.

Down amongst planktonic frass, Bubbling with plutonic gas, Doctors H. both sank their dredges, Monstrous objects shaped like wedges.

Each in hasty memorandum Gave excited explicandum, Demonstrating in the chasm Living Proof of Protoplasm!

How sad to find, in later calm, it Was no more than starfish vomit.

KIN SELECTION

Save your sister, not your brother, Taught the haplodiploid mother. Scavenge pollen, gather nectar, Give your life just to protect her. Since genetically you're one class, Save your kin and not your own ass.

Finding truth had been unfolded, Daughter slew while mama scolded.