UniVerses
Reflux
steamed by torrid rays on tropic seas
humid air forms nimbal watermarks
which skyward bloom until the droplets freeze
then thunder earthward, closing reflux arcs.
the sodden rivers scour silicious crags
extract the carbonaceous molecules
and wash the vomited, volcanic slag:
organic food to fill the fetid pools.
these fertile fens make incubators
where first foments biotic gruel,
in vile fermenting percolators,
germinate the seeds of nuclear fuel.
evolved from plasma from a dead star’s core
the antecedents of this poem’s creator
Chemical bonds combine and break apart. For awhile earth was too hot for complex organic molecules to form, but it cooled to a range of temperatures where macromolecules survived. The atmosphere maintained a steady flow of mineral laden water to feed the growth of diversity in this complex soup. In time, something miraculous happened.
To our eyes this bubbling broth of molecules both large and small should have simmered and dissipated. Yet clearly we are missing something, because that is not what happened. We do not yet understand the forces that govern the interaction between such complex molecules. When the intricacies exceed some specific point additional thermodynamic forces drive the mixture. Some integral of the behavior of individual molecules creates an energy state that favors interaction. This force induced the partitioning into corpuscles which became living cells.
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Text Copyright 2009-2010 Robert Parker Lenk. All rights reserved.
