It’s So Hard to Say

Bacterial Avs proteins
Detect bacteriophage
Viral proteins and cloak them

To prevent them infecting
The bacterium. Defense,
It’s called. Defense. Every cell

Of every life, small or large—
From one-celled, microbial,
Lightning-fast operators,

To behemoth elephants,
Trillions of co-worker cells,
Leathery cities that move—

Must deploy defense. Against?
Other cells, sub-cellular
Packets, lives dubiously

Alive hijacking live cells.
You sit by a lake. Fish jump.
A tiny fly practices

Recon on your arm. A birch,
Unusually old and gnarled,
Thick-trunked and sprawling like oak,

Provides you just enough shade.
A vacationing couple
Calmly paddles a canoe,

Companionably saying
Nothing at all. The blades drip.
All life. Defense. Against life.