November 19, 2024
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Poem: “First Bite”
Science learned through meter and poetry
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Edited by Dava Sobel
A billion years have passed since blue-green algae wrapped themselves in sequins.
And the protist ate the pig, just as a python swallows a pig.
I see a pale hunter circling the dim cove.
The tail hits the mellow water and gulps down the necklace.
cyanobacteria—
Consciousness adjustment only
The exquisite taste of earth
I didn’t know that algae eats sunlight
drawing an electric arc from water
exhales odorless oxygen from its long tongue
It suffocates the anaerobic bacteria in the earth.
Waiting for the food to run out.
But one green flower continues to burn
Inside, it breathes flames and survives.
sunset, sunset
And now the protists feel pregnant
With the little sun god.
they tumble together over the sea
drunk on light
each trying to cough on each other
Alone again, just floating contentedly.
Hundreds of millions of years of wrestling history
Until I was captured, now I’m a chloroplast
Filled with pigment,
fully formed
and design the biosphere:
East Garden, just before Eden
Apple, another reckless bite, banishment
Beyond the jewel earth
