Colombo, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Poetry

The Tamil Man’s Genes

My Tamil DNA,
inherited from generations before,
and the genes lined up along it,
have now been analyzed:
99.99 percent the same as a Sinhala fellow’s
99.90 percent the same as a South Indian Tamil’s,
99.00 percent the same as that of a chimp.

To the chimp, I give bananas,
From the Southie I learn to make Dosas,
With the Sinhala chap, I have picked a fight!

How strange! I say,
It cannot then be,
the genes of my Tamil DNA.

Modern Biology readily explains,
function not just in them genes it claims,
but from the way of their control:
Turned ON and OFF
when, why and where in space
and for how long.
Not the genetics of what came from past,
but the epi-genetics of regulation,
the Here and Now of their manipulation.

Oh, Historian! Do come to my rescue.
Why hast thou not seen an epi- too?