In 1998, scientists in South Korea claimed to have successfully cloned a human embryo, but said the experiment was interrupted very early when the clone was just a group of four cells. In 2002, Clonaid, part of a religious group that believes humans were created by extraterrestrials, held a news conference to announce the birth of what it claimed to be the first cloned human, a girl named Eve. However, despite repeated requests by the research community and the news media, Clonaid never provided any evidence to confirm the existence of this clone or the other twelve human clones it purportedly created.

—National Human Genome Research Institute, “Cloning Fact Sheet”

1.

the sonographic fetus is a cyborg—clonograph—dear future clones you are multiple—to use the letter s to make more of someone—to use the letter s to make a very small silent black river—into which many babies have been borne away—and into the river under the river—the black ocean under the blue ocean—catacombs of bones of those delivered unto the shore beneath the shore—as men of God from Spain and the Spain beneath Spain—arrived with their ships of death beneath death—the world under this world that outnumbers this world

2.

dear future clones I love you more—than I love myself because there are more of you—than there are of me although I am your mother—and your sister and your ancestor—and look in the mirror at your young face—and look behind you at my olding face—and you can do something only prophets can do—which is to see into the future— / Tiresias killed two snakes with a stick—Hera punished him and changed his sex—he was turned into a woman—he served Hera as a priestess, he got married to a man and had children—when he came upon two snakes again he decided to leave them alone—it broke the curse—he was turned back into a man

3.

to love the word offspring—to spring from a trap to spring from jail—sperkhesthai “to hurry” hurry spring come rain-shine—always spring in the wombs deployed for this purpose—ovaries are primed—the word offspring is really both singular and plural—the cell lines are cultured in the singulary—the word single will become a quaint idea has become a quaint idea—we won’t need the letter f anymore in the middle of things—there will never be one knife or one self—knives selves doesn’t that sound better we are better together—we won’t need the word I anymore