(no subject)

Hi--

replyI'm sorry, this just popped out...

I AM NOT A GARDNER Words: Anne Prather
Tune; The Gardner's Hands

Oh, I am not a gardner
And this is how I know
On Petri plate in agar gel
Is the way I make plants grow
My rodies all are dying
The roses all died too
But the Petri dishes in my lab
Grow like dendelions do.

Their roots grow out on the gel
MS salts give them reason to grow
Time and light and the botanist's hands
Map genes from the seeds I have sown.

I tend these things like roses
Although they are but weeds
You may hate them in your garden
I pay dearly for the seeds!
They healthy ones are useless
I kill them one by one
The tiny stunted mutant plants
Are the ones I find most fun.

Their leaves are small and shrunken
Their flowers hardly bloom
But their genomes tell a story
I must decipher soon.
I always need more data
And so I plant more seeds
Until I know each different kind
Of this silly little weed

Sorry, guys, it HAD to happen after the little old lady on the bus, upon hearing I worked in a botany lab, insisted on asking me all kinds of gardening questions for what seemed like hours. Oh well!

Anne Received on 08/28/97