[Newspoetry] Rice toay, Riceroni tomorrow

[DL Emerick]

Sequencing a rice genome

A miracle of rice science
ATGCATGCATGCATGCATGCATGC...
Well, actually, it's not that,
nor is it anything even close,
even if its string has letters
running 3-8-9 million long.

Purely on a thinking basis,
justified by philosophy,
I'd call out Leibniz' rule,
say it's not exactly true --
no two rice genomes are the same,
right down to the last letter.

And, on probabilistic grounds,
alone, I'd say I had a chance,
finding uniqueness as a rule,
in just that differencing way.

It's simpler, easier, dumber
to believe it's all the same,
right down to the last letter,
an A, G, C or even a cup of T.

Take my rice, bio-mechanics,
and fix it so it talks to me,
and says Snackles Crap Pop,
and other non-sequiturs.