I jumped over the ranch-style fence to get closer to this barn. It was one of those perfect barns that needed to be looked at from every angle! From above, I would have liked to see my zig-zag pattern as I moved around to look at it from various vantage points… Surely some nearby vultures must have thought my erratic movements were signs of the last gasps of life.

Last time I posted a photo of a barn, my good friend, Dr. David Sands, was inspired to write me this poem below. He is both a microbiologist and a poet… who says you have to be one thing in life? Hehe… He’s a great guy, and the one responsible for making me read countless books on genetics… probably only so I can get quirky references to the Hox genes in his poems!

Seeing

if you see what you see
and i too see
and we are but engines of innovation
then doubtful we will construct
the same landscapes
or the same mindscapes
for a barn to me is a static recycled tree
without photosynthesis
and a tree is the result of a packaged genome
and a camera is an eye without wiring
and the hox box came from efficiency
and genomes have lots of space to memorize
where occam’s razor trims the fat like frying bacon
so fried that even some of the meat is lost
and has to be reseeded by infusion
and this confusion at the edge of chaos
both fuels us and carries us
away from a darker bit of certainty

linear poem by Dave Sands
non linear barn by Trey Ratcliff