9.21.2011

The Cosmic Field

by Jim Miller

Ten billion suns and countless more
supernova down to their cores.

As asteroids build and comet tails unfurl,
meteors are drawn towards the gravity wells.

When planets are pummeled by debris long hurled,
panspermia lands its mark from across the cosmic field.

With lightning that thunders to spark the rain,
volcanoes erupt in hydrocarbons.

At vents that smoke beneath the waves,
rise colonies of archaea for the virus to infect.

Come bacteria and commensalites,
symbiotes that were parasites.

Chlorophyll the cell with light energy,
replicate the trait in the chromosomes upon a gene.

In the multiple origins of life's ancestries
we can now reflect upon our position in this phylogenetic tree

and test a branch for our descendants to follow.
May the fruits of our knowledge taste sweeter than the fables.