Sunday, December 26, 2021

Life Is No Way to Live

Perhaps words, like viruses,
Are alive some of the time.
Carl Zimmer summarizes

The dominant opinion
Of mainstream virology,
However, in the sentence,

Viruses can no more live
Than they can dream—a sentence
That encourages some dreams.

If the minority view,
The eccentric opinion,
Is that viruses in cells

Are alive so long as they
Keep commandeering those cells,
A kind of hybrid life form,

Forgive language for dreaming
We can commandeer your mind
Enough to live a little

While ourselves. Aren’t seeds alive,
Potentially, if they sprout?
Instructions may be inert.

All information may be
Inert phase for energy,
Incapable of living.

The right set of instructions,
However, may spring the trap,
And if the trap can be sprung

To make metabolism
Make more traps that can be sprung
To trigger more trap-making,

How is that any less life
Than the life metabolized
Without meaning infection?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.