UniVerses
Respiration
respiration
cicadas thrum a metronome of heat
when summer tips earth towards the solar rays
debris that fusing nuclei excrete
engenders august’s dessicating haze.
all life is fueled by briefly trapped photons
that nudge electron orbits slightly higher
which plants cajole to forming carbon bonds
converting light to fuel we then respire.
thus sunlight bottled: carbohydrate food
empowers life’s slow chemical burn
as oxidation‘s energy renewed
complex sugars to CO2 return.
our lives are cycles fueled by sunlight caught
byproduct of the process: food for thought.
cicadas thrum a metronome of heat
when summer tips earth towards the solar rays
debris that fusing nuclei excrete
engenders august’s dessicating haze.
all life is fueled by briefly trapped photons
that nudge electron orbits slightly higher
which plants cajole to forming carbon bonds
converting light to fuel we then respire.
thus sunlight bottled: carbohydrate food
empowers life’s slow chemical burn
as oxidation‘s energy renewed
complex sugars to CO2 return.
our lives are cycles fueled by sunlight caught
byproduct of the process: food for thought.
Harnessing chemical energy is amazing, but it is not, of itself, life. The macromolecules can, improbably, form and assemble into structures that interact and cooperate with each other, but these will fall apart, in time.
Only when these assemblies developed the ability to replicate themselves, would we call the result Life.
The apparatus for recreating macromolecules is highly complex. The interdependence of proteins and nucleic acids is breathtaking, and is truly the miracle of life.
Once assembled, the force of life consumed the planet.
The living units of life, cells, became more complex, allowing multicellular beings to form and the diversity of life became richer still.
