Michael Shepherd - 0060 Melanin

Melanin is a polymer, most often of
two molecules with very long names,
indolequinone, and dihydroxyindole carboxylic acid,
which are in all of us, affecting
skin and hair color and even
present in the eye and its color
and the brain too; the word
comes from the Greek for ‘black’

It is believed that all of us whose ancestors
lived near the Equator, and
that could be all of us yeah
originally had black skins,
inherited suntan if you like
but that those who moved up north
got whiter – which helped
to absorb Vitamin D from the sparse sunlight and
stave off rickets and such.

All pretty cool so far, right?

My clever schooldays friend
later researched melanin
finding in the course of his studies
that a rubber factory in South America somewhere,
tires I think not condoms
used a compound that accidentally turned
black-skinned workers into white
which caused some social consternation

So, are you wondering where this poem
Is going? Or is it a bit too obvious?
Well, I’ll stop there, and
you can follow it up yourself.
No point in spelling it out
In black and white.

Michael Shepherd

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0060-melanin/