The Gene

There’s a gene embedded in every parent
  to recreate
  what their parents had done

Sometimes good, and sometimes bad,
  passing it down
  from father to son

To repeat family history through memories past
  the circle
  a lingering fate  

Excuses come early with reasons
  too late
  DNA always proffered as bait

The young and the old both prisoners of time
  their footsteps in sequence
  to fall
  
 And when questions are posed why they acted this way,
   they’re too busy passing it on
      —to recall

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)