Lullaby to a Fruit Fly
Come little fly.
Come to your keeper.
Take a little whiff
And face the grim reaper
Breathe deep these fumes
Of fruity nepenthe.
Thomas Hunt Morgan
Surely once sent thee.
Quiet those wings and
Hold still those legs;
live only to lay me
One thousand eggs.
Eggs upon agar,
Maggots a-crawling,
Pupae like wheat grains,
Children a-sprawling,
Bloody red eyes
With jewelled ommatidia,
Give me a thesis
Or it’s insecticidia.
—David Hiram Thompson
We’re in the midst of our regularly scheduled museum-cleaning, and this poem was discovered, on a scrap of paper, hiding under some boxes on the floor. It was clearly published in a journal or magazine, but I cannot find the source. As someone who delights in the intersection of science and poetry I thought I would share it here. Maybe you know where it came from! I’ll post on a couple more discoveries here soon, but maybe this one will prime you to write your own poems about research.
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