Membraneless Microdroplets

Gas bubbles within
A heated rock core
Have been shown to be
Conducive to life—
Early life, that is—

By experiments
With coacervates
That have no membranes.
It’s another step
For the gastropod

That is life on Earth,
Army that moves on
Its stomach and curls
In its shell to dwell
On its sense of self.

Sooner or later,
The ability
To make compartments
In which to evolve
Will allow for us

To repeat what life
Managed first in rocks
But symbolically,
By which we mean us,
Literal symbols.