Dear Dr. Frankenstein

I, too, know the science of building men
Out of fragments in little light
Where I'll be damned if lightning don't

Strike as I forget one 
May have a thief's thumb,

Another, a murderer's arm,
And watch the men I've made leave
Like an idea I meant to write down, 

Like a vehicle stuck
In reverse, like the monster

God came to know the moment 
Adam named animals and claimed 
Eve, turning from heaven to her

As if she was his
To run. No word he said could be tamed.

No science. No design. Nothing taken 
Gently into his hand or your hand or mine, 
Nothing we erect is our own.

Copyright Credit: Jericho Brown, "Dear Dr. Frankenstein" from The New Testament. Copyright © 2014 by Jericho Brown.  Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press.
Source: The New Testament (Copper Canyon Press, 2014)