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Genetics explores the idea that much of who we are comes from our biological parents. This is true no matter what has changed in our lives or their lives, or how distant we may be from them.

Morrissey begins by suggesting that her hands show similarities to the hands of both her parents.

Her fingers show traces of her father, while her palms are more like those of her mother. She can recognise that her parents are a part of her by looking at her hands.

Despite the fact that her parents are no longer together - and live apart from both her and each other - she suggests that she will always be a symbol of the relationship they had.

The final stanza of the poem is addressed to her husband. Morrissey invites him to "take up the skin’s demands" and have children with her so that they will create - and be part of – “bodies of the future”, just as her parents did.