"Origins"
by Pat Farrar

Taken by kind permission from Father's On-Line Library.

How did he get to be like that?
He was born, and he survived.
Is there someone who can tell the tale,
Who was there when he arrived?

Father knows what happened,
But it's a story he won't tell.
It's not that he's forgotten;
He remembers all too well.

The Paters longed to have a child,
But they had tried for years.
He saw John's desperation grow,
And he helped dry Anna's tears.

"We're men of science, Jacob,
There must be something we can do.
Help me figure out a way.
I'd do the same for you."

So John and Jacob set to work.
They were years before their time.
Could they create a Test Tube baby?
Surely, that would be no crime.

For months they slaved with no result,
But John would not loose heart.
It became his one obsession.
Jacob sighed, but did his part.

Finally, a breakthrough came.
"Looks promising, I'd say.
But we can't try this with Anna
'Til we're sure that it's OK."

"We'll test it first, just to be sure.
Some large animal will do.
And there's a tunnel entrance
That is just outside the zoo."

John went Above to run the test.
When several weeks had passed;
"It worked, My Friend, it really worked!
I'll have a son, at last!"

And for awhile, all did seem well.
Pregnant Anna smiled with joy.
After all this time, a baby.
She was hoping for a boy.

John really did return Above
The lioness to abort.
But he began to wonder........
(Scientists tend to be that sort)

We know about poor Anna,
And how her child was lost.
Jacob thought it was all over,
Never dreamed the future cost.

We know of Paracelcus,
John was never quite the same.
But he kept watch up at the zoo
'Til the other baby came.

He knew where Anna walked at night,
Put it there for her to find.
Was it only his obsession?
Was he trying to be kind?

That part we may never know;
But we know what happened later.
Jacob gained another son,
And lost his friend, John Pater.

So Father keeps the secret yet,
Afraid to tell the others.
But, he wonders still, what did John do
With Vincent's sister and his brothers?

About the Author

Pat Farrar considers herself an artist, not a writer. Her poems were all written as illustrations to go along with her drawings.
A big fan of the early fanzine series, "Intertwined", she became author Nanci Casad's Staff Artist for #'s 3-5 and a couple of Quantum Leap 'zines. When Nanci bowed out of writing BATB, she was forced into finding other outlets, even getting a couple of 4S protest poems published in Nan Dibble's "Phoenix" series. In desperation, unable to badger any of her authorish friends into
putting her SND idea into words, she finally wrote and published "Jacob's Dream". You can reach Pat at: PLFarrar@aol.com