Camp NaNoWriMo Day 6: Another World Over

One of the things I love about poetry is its ability to help you look at things with a new perspective. And one of the things I love about NaNoWriMo is how it gets me up and writing when I would rather be sleeping…

 

Another World Over

a poem by Lauren Hallstrom

 

The cells in her body are brushing up

against each other in greeting;

they are lauding their own work

and singing their neighbors’ praises.

The neurons are reaching out,

reaching out and speaking.

They want her to move

more, feel

more, be

more.

They are loving the body they are in.

They will live and die for her.

She is a machine made to succeed.

 

Her epithelial cells know the importance

of keeping separate.

Her skeletal muscle cells are tugging.

Osteocytes are soaking up and reshaping,

because bone is stronger when stress is placed upon it.

She doesn’t know how strong she is.

 

What the cells don’t know is that today is Monday

and her work week has begun,

and the red blood cells are dancing through

their routes anyway.

Sometimes she doesn’t know herself.

Sometimes she feels she is a being

made up of a hundred trillion others.

 

Her platelets are making eggshell art.

Her stem cells are knitting a scarf.

Her white blood cells are brushing up

on their checkers and hide-and-seek

and wishing every once in a while,

if only for a second,

that a virus would find its way in,

just so they can show her

how they fight.