Poetry By Jeannie E. Roberts

Pondering Deoxyribonucleic Acid and Belonging
 
 
Units of repeating patterns combine in conversation, celebrate
their commonalities, focus on their familiarity, revel
in the tight loop of DNA. There are others in attendance,
 
two who listen, sit quietly, wait for their chance to be included,
a mother and son whose chain of nucleotides carry different
genetic instructions. So how do families with dissimilar DNA
 
blend and bond? On the path of belonging, does birthright
and surname take preference? Or, perhaps true belonging exists
collectively, in the consciousness and biology of humanity.
 
In the process of trying to fit in, sometimes we lose ourselves,
forget that we're an intrinsic part of the equation.
As we seek to find the self we believed to be fuller,
 
less broken, we realize we must leave the pain and isolation
of double standards, move to the place that shaped
and defined us, our birthplace, here we examine our essence,
 
the one intact prior to the alienation. In revisiting the past,
we find that everything has changed, that our memories
are just markers in time, residue of a life no longer in existence.
 
But what if our memories are a form of belonging?
What if belonging and connection reside in remembrances―
the reminders and sensations of what has been,
 
in the traces of cellular memory―the expression of laughter,
a loving embrace, the emergence of sunrise, the movement
of waves, scent of fire, water's quench on a hot summer's day . . .
 
Why is DNA important to some people and not important
to others? Do we place too much emphasis on our hereditary
material?
 
Aren't we already one in our universal kinship? Why can't
kindness, compassion, and inclusion be the cohesive bonds
to acceptance and belonging? Isn't the quality of being human
enough?

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Bio: Jeannie E. Roberts has authored four poetry collections and one children's book. Her most recent collection is The Wingspan of Things, a poetry chapbook (Dancing Girl Press, 2017). She is also the author of Romp and Ceremony, a full-length poetry collection (Finishing Line Press, 2017), Beyond Bulrush, a full-length poetry collection (Lit Fest Press, 2015), and Nature of it All, a poetry chapbook (Finishing Line Press, 2013). She is the author and illustrator of Let's Make Faces!, a children's book dedicated to her son (author-published, 2009). Her work appears in books, online magazines, print journals and anthologies, including A Year of Being Here, An Ariel Anthology, Bards Against Hunger, Blue Heron Review, Bramble, Festival of Language's Festival Writer, Literary Mama, Misty Mountain Review, Portage Magazine, Quill and Parchment, Red Cedar Review, Silver Birch Press, Sky Island Journal, The Paddock Review, Verse-Virtual, Visual Verse, Yellow Chair Review and elsewhere. Born and raised in Minneapolis, she lives in an inspiring setting near Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, where she writes, draws and paints, and often photographs her natural surroundings. 

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