POEM

Phylogeny of Me by Bruce Alan Noll
Posted March 31, 2000 · Issue 75

Phylogeny,
an evolutionary tree
to trace history of bushes,
bugs, panthers, wings and beaks of birds,
to find strands of insights as to why
caterpillars crawl on certain leaves,
to guess at flowers' links to weeds,
see mysteries in fish teeth or horse bones,
query over ambered critters or
shadows in rock - those former
life wonders which slipped into
mud by shores of Permian seas.

I, too, have reversals,
course back across myself,
drop traits of character,
pick up new habits, alter
old patterns, branch out,
sprout stems that lead nowhere,
have extinct loves,
contribute a generation,
join in-groups or out-groups,
switch about in contradictions,
cope with sisters I don't understand,
have my own lineage questioned,
leave littered clues after myself,
fret little about thoughts morphological
but still try new courses,
flow on those with least resistance,
look for what's comfortable,
what works, what's curious,
what's worth the time,
worth the fight,
until there is that trail,
what's left of me,
an ancestry of myself.

Bruce Alan Noll has had poems published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Entomologist, as well as other periodicals. He is an amateur entomologist with varied interests and is currently a visiting professor in the College of Education, University of New Mexico, where he teaches Communication, Family Studies, Adult Learning, and Entomology. He has created a program of Walt Whitman's poems, Pure Grass, which has been performed in 22 states, primarily at colleges and universities.