And breathe
Venter Institute scientists have created
the first synthetic bacterial genome.
As the scientist’s apprentice
draws his hand back from the dish
the harsh strip-lighting announces
every shadow in every crevice.
His fingers retract from the act,
retreat towards his body, while his lungs
lift and fall unnoticed – their own miracle
of engineering a fact too far for the physician
who the next day will photograph
and hang them on the wall and point
here is a defect, and here while shock
fixes the face of the scientist’s apprentice
breathing in daily who knows what
life rising from the dish.
*Heidi Williamson is a Norfolk based poet with an interest in science. Her first collection Electric Shadow (Bloodaxe, 2011) is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. In 2008-2009 she was poet-in-residence at the London Science Museum’s Dana Centre. She is currently poet-in-residence at the John Jarrold Printing Museum.
