Bread Of Life/ Nutrition Poem by Frances Anne Doogan

What did our father, who up in heaven, give us this day as our food?
He made the genetic the genes of earth's clay and saw that it was very good.
Its crystalline form, he saw at a glance, could become a fine sparkling gem
If fed nutrients, purest air and liquid to develop and grow into men (and women).

A vitamin here, a mineral there - trace elements needed for life
Fatty acids, but wait? They must be the right kind, or else we are heading for strife
For too much of one thing, too little of that, creates many problems for sure
For food is not pleasure but necessity, unless we want gems weak and poor.

And then we are heading to be turned to dross, as scientists don't want malaise
"Abort, withdraw food" is their infamous cry, "we'll extract their organs, then erase.

"We'll transplant them here and dissect them there, for we're the new masters of life

In our hands lie man's health and his progeny too, but why not - for disease it is rife?"

All because man forgot that he's made out of clay and needs nought but the etchings made by God
And the healthiest person, the one full of zest is but (s)he who remembers the clod
so what do we want for ourselves and our seed - do we want their demise or their good?
Then turn to the one who's the author of life, who sent Jesus his son as our food (in the Eucharist).