Obsessed with pg. 24

of the record Gregor Mendel

kept of his experiments

in agri-alchemy-melancholia

(out west of vowels—1/2 text,

1/2 spawn—

mutating like cells

in a parked SUV),

the grim padres of abominations

abandoned (too

soon) their quest for purer californium

(a protean element) / their flirtation

with substances

not occurring in nature—

i. e. purer californium.

& damaged, & deranged,

by legacies of less than perfect progeny,

they analyzed cycles

of their own inveterate defecation—

texture, aroma, size, time of day

but found only miscellanea

[c.f. pg. 24]

prophylactic as flesh

aching thru morning’s inexorable

mutations

un-[progeny of isotopes]

stable.(ImPerf-

Ect.) etc. etc.—the experiment

posterity makes

of radiant darkness.