DNA
the nucleic acid containing
the genetic instructions
used in the development
and functioning of all known
living organisms
Words
: hydrogen
oxygen
nitrogen
carbon
phosphorus
the bearer of light : words again
the light in your eye
borne again
through the days since birth
through the years
and all the words,
the double helix of poetry
which shapes our lives
and our loves
words sustained
by photosynthesis
words that breathe
on the page
and in the mind
and in the heart
There are no children
as such
in this brotherhood of sisters
or this sisterhood of brothers
all of us siblings of the sun
we are carbon
we are water
and we are words
brief pauses
here and there and there
supple carbohydrated punctuation
in the articulation of eternity
that ever is and ever was
that here and now of flowers
and fish and forests and flames
of passion
contemporaries
of the earliest expansion
of the universe
but blueprints
with a will of our own
Blood was drawn on the thorns
of a rosebush
a thick velvet droplet
hung upon the petal
a tear
uncried
a word longing
to be spoken
We pulse with words
even as we occasionally glimpse
their atomic energy
: and language
is the highway
of the heart
John Lyons
johnjosephlyons 