Poems of the Skin.

I wrote these one day in anatomy class and wanted to share them here. 

____________________

206 living stones

   give or take

8% of our genes

   are viral

only takes a microscopic

   nothing to cause

disease, disability, death.

   Bones are 25% water

nerve cells bear no repair

   But the body bears 

no worry, for all its duties.

   It may not take a break

Have a coffee and a smoke

   Take a day off from

blood production, 

synapse,

mitosis,

And we have so little appreciation for

the fact that

we.are.so.fragile.

__________________________

God has a nucleus,

membranes and mitochondria

And divides

all the time.

__________________________

Every single day

It is a miracle

That we are alive.

__________________________

For Visions

Some of us dance for life

Some of us dance for death

All of us cry for a vision.

Whether we realize the changes we make

Are the steps of the quest

Whether we sit on the hill

In our minds or on our asses,

We cry for a vision.

Sitting at lunch, locked in the cubicle,

Just before sleep, just after waking,

We are lost in the mire of decision-making.

We close our eyes tightly

Rub the bridges of our noses

Take a deep breath

And wish for light on the path.

We cry for a vision.

___________________________

Fast Eddie

The words on his water bottle said, "Fast Eddie."

And he lost his "r"s due to an origin somewhere

      near the Eastern seaboard.

In his email are hundreds of scientific newsletters

And if he realizes mid-sentence

      that he does not know

Then mid-sentence he'll say

      "I don't know."

And we'll laugh,

Because honesty breaks hearts and barriers

And lowers the the bar of expectation

Between humans.

He could see up close, but not far away --

But I suppose that's true for all of us.