Definitions
Apoptosis:
the highly regulated enzymatic process
of intentional cellular death.
Why death?
What if the intention was
life?
No, I understand
our careful definitions
wield a distance
from within.
They are
so useful and
so valid.
But so is belief
in the unbelievable,
in the unknowing,
in the indefinite undefining,
Consider Rana sylvatica,
the frog who survives its winter
by becoming it.
Imagine —
in a storm of chemical proportions,
it quiets its own heart
and freezes solid.
It becomes
a still life
of molecular motion,
a breathless moment
out of time.
Yes, we can measure death.
We can study hibernation.
We can wait for spring…
We can even simulate it.
Those are leaves papering a burrow,
insulation.
Each leaf a singular work of art,
released into flight by
what we call
apoptosis.
Meanwhile,
inside,
a cellular light still burns,
hotter than any thought
of the frog,
unwinding a new story,
letter by letter,
integrating the crystalline paradox
of informed belief
in each unrepeatable moment,
in spring,
in our own shattering,
in the audacious process
of our intentional
indefining.
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