Father Lament

Please tell me father, am I sprung from you?

	Can one be sure

		that when the genome has been mixed

		and the image of the child has been fixed

	that one is looking at 

		the product of oneself?





		Can one be sure?

			When a zebra mates a foal

			the offspring is not zebra whole.

		Appearance proves no 

			birthright to oneself.





			Long ago man couldn't be sure.

				Odysseus wed Penelope

				and Telemachus sprung from she.

			Telemachus, filled with doubt said:

				"Who can know from whom he springs?"





	Now woman who I've loved as wife and mother,

		Pastor, who may be (or not) her brother,

		(Who can tell if you share a father?)

	and Bertha, whom I've loved as daughter,

		"Now I lay me down to sleep."

A man has no children. Only women have children, and so the future is theirs, while we die childless. -Captain Adolf