Oogenesis: When do eggs form in humans?
https://www.britannica.com/science/oogenesis

Spermatogenesis: When do sperm form in humans
https://www.verywellhealth.com/how-long-does-sperm-live-8735193


Rong again


The sperm form all through a man's life
and die after what, ten weeks?
if they do not fertilize the egg

The egg

now that is a different story
the egg contains nutrition
to tide the new being over
until the placenta is implanted

and it has
the mitochondria
"the power house of the cell"

the sperm 
have no mitochondria

the mitochondria 
are maternal only

when do the eggs form?

the eggs form 
in the fetal girl
eight to twenty weeks after fertilization
by the time she is born
she has all the eggs 
that she will have

some will mature
some will not
most will die

the most common abortions
are "spontaneous" abortions
performed by God

we grieve anyway

except when we don't
and when we are relieved

So when did I form?

not when the sperm 
met the egg
sometime in June 
1960

my mother
is born in May
1938

she is forming me
as she develops 
in my grandmother's womb

I am started sometime
in 1937

do not tell me
that life starts 
in humans
when the sperm meets the egg

because that is wrong
rong again

that is the male view
isn't it? 
years ago 
they think that the man
contributs the entire homunculus
to the womb of the woman
and she is
merely
the vessel

also rong

and if 
each baby girl
holds eggs
and lives
that are already started

you would think

that we would treat women better

it isn't penis envy that kills
women

rong again

I think that it is envy
of the women
and the mitochondria

maybe if we understand
the eggs
the mitochondria
that women carry 
from before birth

maybe

we will treat women 
and girls 
better

___________________

I can't credit the photographer because I am the little girl in the canoe. The photographer is family, no doubt, and dead. Except for their genes, and some of them live on.