The Gene Poem by Kurt Philip Behm

There's a gene embedded in every parent
to recreate
what their parents had done

Sometimes good, and sometimes bad,
passing it down
from father to son

To repeat family history through memories past
the circle
a lingering fate

Excuses come early with reasons
too late
DNA always proffered as bait

The young and the old both prisoners of time
their footsteps in sequence
to fall

And when questions are posed why they acted this way,
they're too busy passing it on
—to recall

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April,2015)