Larry's Blog

thoughts from a cell

you played softball Sunday morning
de-ox-y-rib-o-nu-cle-ic acid
(after all that, I’m not an acid but a salt)
like an old lady’s beads thrown in a purse
I live in a dark nucleus
you walk in the sun around Horn Pond

you played softball Sunday morning
de-ox-y-rib-o-nu-cle-ic acid
(after all that, I’m not an acid but a salt)
like an old lady’s beads thrown in a purse
I live in a dark nucleus
you walk in the sun around Horn Pond

I am polymerase and replicate the ribbon of life
I am an enzyme that reads a section of the code
you smile and talk with a fisherman

I am a protein rolled up from the blueprint
in a segment of the string
I know who you are
you look up and see the morning clouds

the cytoplasm is my home.
I am a membrane
I manufacture ribosomes
that read the orders
and give commands
you read your book
a new thought enters your mind

sugars and carbohydrates, that’s
all we are, like a chain of crystal
six feet long, wrapped in a coil
we hold the numbers
now you are driving your car

I am a million years old
only carbon oxygen and hydrogen
and elements of nitrogen in the plan
we were there when it all began
you scratch your head
you think you’ll write a poem