Daphnia pulex

Daphnia pulex

Water flea,
no me,
randomly hopping through a microscopic
watery world.
Why do you have 31,000 genes on 12 chromosomes?
This is 8,000 more
than I have on one pair short, of 24.

Written by: Chris York

5 responses

  1. I think for non-botanists/zoologists (you see, I’m struggling to even articulate the science) we need help, and I’m wondering if it’s just a matter of punctuation in this poem. A full stop to end the first line, then on line 2 a comma after No… and a readjustment in the last line which has me a bit puzzled?

    Having said that, it’s a great insight and I love the idea of your protagonist ‘randomly hopping’ like a flea..

  2. Oh dear – ‘no me’ was supposed to mean no self-awareness. If I change the first lines to:

    Water flea
    simply
    hopping in your microscopic world.

    would it be clearer that I am comparing a simple organism (flea) to a complex and much bigger organism (me) and wondering why the flea has more genes on 12 chromosomes than I have on 23 pairs of chromosomes =46.
    I am afraid to admit that the contortion in the last line was, gulp, for the sake of rhyme.

    1. I liked the original, just wasn’t sure of the ‘no me’ – would it work if this was omitted – pity to lose ‘randomly’ and ‘watery’ – which rhyme with ‘flea’, but internally.

      The final rhyme…mmm… could you use ‘8000 more than me’ / on my 23′?

  3. I think I will leave ‘no me’ out because it is confusing. Perhaps ‘Water flea/simply/ hopping randomly/in your microscopic world/ …….
    8,000 more than me/on my 23/pairs.’ I have to add the word pairs or say 46!

Leave a Reply