Writing from the stemistry lab
Sticky numbers
by Barbara Gordon
Binary protocols for analysis of superfamilies.
Observation of behavioural patterns.
Search sequences of site profiles.
Random and deliberate function features.
Analysis contours.
The house flies didn’t know how interesting they were.
The long curling brown ribbons
Of sticky paper hanging from the lamp bracket
Unfurled gently as the wrapper came off.
Not pretty, but innocently deadly,
Gathering clusters of blue-sheened insects.
The frantic waving of wings and legs
Slowly ceasing – bodies now inert.
Frenzied buzzing hushed.
Fly superfamilies – sticky numbers of data
Glued onto brown paper licensed to kill.
But what attracted them?
Perhaps they weren’t attracted at all,
Just victims of wonky behavioural patterns.