In The Dark

Upon entering the anatomy academy
And reading each book through,
I soon remarked on the astonishing capacity
The body had to do.

Think how overwhelming life is for an active lymphocyte.
A trip across a thumb
Takes hours of labor, bumps, and scraping with all its might
Till it's fin'ly done.

Could I, behind my podium, balance out the sodium
Racing through my tubules?
Could I, through my glasses, define all the masses
Of nerves in my lobules?

Could I, if I chose, convert glucose into glycogen
Or, better yet, back again?

Could I, if I wait, navigate a breath of air back
To an alveolar sac?

Could I, if I'm idle, end a knock-down drag-out fight
With an eager phagocyte?

Could I, if I tried, redirect my core blood flow
To a freezing frostbit toe?

Not I. But my body can.

But the most amazing thing in a sea of amazing things
Deserves a passing remark.
We humans are so dependent on the light to aid our sight.
We hail, we look, we hark.
But how does one cell call another? What force unseen brings
Them, binds them, in the dark?

Each cell's uncanny attraction to another is a marvel to me.
For when left unchecked,
These noseless, eyeless, earless, legless cells continue to be
Effortlessly perfect.