Statistics for an anonymous sperm
Are you half bird or half a monster,
Half insect of half questing man?
Just now, who cares?
Keep wriggling fast;
I fear this race might be your last.
A sort of Roman race, where die
All those who do not lead the field,
No quarter given,
No ‘please drive slowly’,
No ‘ladies first’; just haste unholy.
The one rule is there are no rules,
No dignity to bear in mind.
The only goal
To win the race,
‘Gainst gruesome odds a murderous pace.
Locked in you half of all the sum
Of three thousand million years.
Ruthless seek
Your other half
And never, ever, stop to laugh.
Perhaps half saint or half a statesman,
Half king or half a gracious queen?
It’s much more probable,
Statistically,
You’re half a worm or half a flea.
The brothers and sisters you outsmart,
Never shall burn in fires of love,
The cycle broken.
Lost in a cloud of phantom days,
So near to life, just drifting haze.
RAE, 25 December 1976
Statistics for an anonymous sperm
Are you half bird or half a monster,
Half insect of half questing man?
Just now, who cares?
Keep wriggling fast;
I fear this race might be your last.
A sort of Roman race, where die
All those who do not lead the field,
No quarter given,
No ‘please drive slowly’,
No ‘ladies first’; just haste unholy.
The one rule is there are no rules,
No dignity to bear in mind.
The only goal
To win the race,
‘Gainst gruesome odds a murderous pace.
Locked in you half of all the sum
Of three thousand million years.
Ruthless seek
Your other half
And never, ever, stop to laugh.
Perhaps half saint or half a statesman,
Half king or half a gracious queen?
It’s much more probably,
Statistically,
You’re half a worm or half a flea.
The brothers and sisters you outsmart,
Never shall burn in fires of love,
The cycle broken.
Lost in a cloud of phantom days,
So near to life, just drifting haze.
RAE, 25 December 1976