Ode to Developmental Biology

I remember having written a piece of poetry after the last exam I took in developmental biology class. I still think it's witty and funny, so I'm resurfacing it and sharing it again:

goodbye! shh, lmx1, wnt7a, en1
goodbye! fgf8, fgf4, gli3
goodbye! hoxa11, hoxd11
goodbye! foxa1, foxa2, gata4, gata6

i really deserve a good break from
all those headaches you grilled into my brain... ;)

but there are things i will sorely miss.
indeed, Wolpert and Gilbert, i will terribly miss
your ringbound spines, your sweetly-torn pages,
those little scribbles of my fondness of you...

you were so accommodating with my confused sanity,
even if i was probably more pressured than curious
to dare touch your loving paperback...

even if i stole your copyright from the safe helm of the reserved sections of the library...
and had you mercilessly lay flat against the blinding light of the xerox machine.

now somehow, i pity you because
we used you... wronged you like this!
and then i curse you after each exam that
i had barely survived.

i will miss you, Wolpert and Gilbert,
because now i understand how it feels to be
a medical student...

how it feels to study the humerus, radius and the ulna,
why dinosaurs have digits I, II, and III,
why chicken feet have incomplete necrosis,
and why adidas has a useless claw.

but now, i will shove you up there in my cabinet,
to hide you from my weary eyes,

not because i hate you forever,
but because sometimes
distance will make the heart grow fonder... ;)

your ever-faithful student,
schubert

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