#syngenesephobia

[peace-and-light-poetry]

Genetic Distrust

She wished she had quills And further fueled distrust Of the ones

With whom she was related

She wouldn't state Why she distrusted them so much Some of her reasons made sense

And some of them were just there (instinctive)

In her mind, she pictured a porcupine Not erethizontidae, those run away No, she pictured hystricidae

The kind that crippled apex predators Turning lions and tigers into maneaters

She pictured a rodentine amalgam With the quills of hystricidae And her relatives as its enemies

As she mused, she envied this creature It had what she didn't

Still, she distrusted her relatives Those ones with whom she shared her genetics For reasons

Reasons that made sense And ones that didn't (instinctive)

Still, within, in her imagination, She pictured a despondent quilled rodentine amalgam And a lioness and tiger in the distance

In reality, she'd never let them embrace her No, she kept them at a distance

That amalgam's quills could cripple them both (perhaps, at one point, they nicked her with their claws?)

She'd rather burn herself alive Self-immolation would hurt a lot less Than get close to them again

Such is her existence And she's accepted it