Poem: "The Book Within"
This poem came out of the September 7-8 Poetry Fishbowl. It was prompted and sponsored by janetmiles.
The Book Within
Each body bears a book within,
describing meticulously how to live.
All cells carry the body's whole code,
one book printed throughout.
Each cell of an organ is on the same page
as all of its other cells -- yet the heart
is not the brain, nor the liver like the lungs.
Only the stem cells have the ability
to close and open the book to any page,
as potent and malleable as language.
We know that this book is true,
if followed faithfully, but we are
only beginning to learn how to read it.
We are tentative, still, in editing
even a known error -- what we do not know
is so much larger than what we know.
We are a long way from being able
to write fluently, yet we cannot help
moving our lips along with the words
and tracing the first few letters as we go.
This potential literacy, too, is written
here in the book within, legacy
of an Author disputed by many
but dear to all.