"Cellular" by Lizzie Harris

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend June 21, 2017   Cellular   Lizzie Harris

There's no law that says life needs to get more complicated. In fact, it's difficult to grow big. Humanity has always been improbable,   but occurred when two single cells floated—perhaps they wanted each other?—into one. Even a host can learn to love a leech. This is molecular:   One thing cares for another, in a way it could never care for itself. Everything you know was born from this sacrifice. Red- woods stretched, shellfish bristled the floor.   Life, in even the simplest form, has always been a matter of finding the energy.            Copyright © 2017 Lizzie Harris. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "This is part of a collection of poems that examine the emergence of the Internet as an apocalyptic event: a permanent shift in how we connect with the world around us. This particular poem is a bit of an outlier, in that it obsesses about similar themes of time, relationships, and identity, but uses a more fundamental shift—from simple (single-cell organisms) to complex life—as a backdrop." —Lizzie Harris   Lizzie Harris is the author of Stop Wanting (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2014). She's the poetry editor of Bodega Magazine and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Poetry by Harris   Stop Wanting (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2014) "Ghosts That Need Reminding" by Dana Levin "Square Cells" by Jenny Xie "Outside the Church" by Annie Petrie-Sauter Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038