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.
Lauren Hallstrom 