Love Bugs Poem by Sidi Mahtrow

It started out as a simple experiment
One that an amateur biologist
Could run using castoff equipment
Purchased on ebay.

She (or maybe it was he)
Thought it might be fun to see
If inserting foreign DNA
Was as easy as they say.

Catching the love bugs was
No problem as they were in full amorous pursuit
Flying mated, tail to tail
In the throes of creating yet another generation

And the most easily obtained DNA of all
Was that which made the firefly glow
Luciferase is the name
Given because of the eternal flame
That permitted the bug to glow
When sending a message to lovers below.

A flash of the tail light
And soon there would be other flies in flight.
Mating and then returning to the ground
Where eggs laid were soon to be found.

Now the cleverness of the engineering trick
Was based on a fact known by others, I suspect
For both the Love Bug and Fire Fly
Were known to on rotting vegetation thrive.

So into the caldron containing love bug squishy parts
(Which contained eggs and other works of arts)
A batch of foreign DNA was mixed
To contain the light determining fix.

Patience is required by those practicing this game of lucifer
And the tubes were incubated awaiting the new bug's stir.
But as with much that is to be
Somewhere interest waned as it appeared there was nothing to see.

So one early morn,
All was pitched in the trash for a sojourn
To the dump where all was buried.
An ideal spot for eggs to be incubated.

And there they lay through the cold winter nights
Awaiting spring with its delights.
Until one day in May
There was a stirring, come what may.

Emerging from the waste that had provided
A warm bed in which the larva matured,
Slowly crawled not one bug but many more
For the amateur had been successful by the score.

They flexed their tiny wings
And dried them in the winds of spring
Until they were quite ready to take flight
And soared upward to their delight.

But what is it that a Love Bug does?
Why seek out another to mate of course,
And mate they did as all had done before,
But there was something more.

For as the bugs soared in matrimonial bliss
There was a fusion with that mating kiss
Suddenly the sky lite up like nothing before
As the Luciferase added to the musical score.

Once it was that only a few Fire Flies
Lit up the evening skies
Now Love Bugs light out the great outdoors
And when they splatter on the grill of the oncoming cars and trucks
There amongst their bodies and guts
Coat all with a glowing testament
To that unnamed person with a biological bent.

And Lucifer gets his revenge.