Poetry - TWINS

From one fertilized egg that contains a single set of genetic instructions, also known as a genome, did you know it is still possible for identical twins to have serious differences in their genetic makeup? Did you know some are mirror images of each other? They have the same physical features but opposite asymmetric features. If one twin is right-handed, the other twin is left handed, a twin with a birthmark on his left check will have a mirror twin with a birthmark on his right check. They can even have hair that whorls in opposite directions and opposite teeth. In more extreme cases, twins even have mirrored internal organs, such as one with a heart on the right and the co-twin with a heart on the left - even the skeletal features may be reversed.

There they were on the screen—

Shoestrings tightly interwoven,

Tree limbs reaching out like arms,

Plant roots stretching like legs—

A silent comedy of entangled umbilical cords.

© TWINS

Mimi Wolske

All Rights Reserved

(I am not a twin, there are no twins in my family history, there still are no twins in our family.)