Telling the Beads

Telling the beads
of life, molecule
by molecule, a litany
of chemistry, a rosary --
praying a protein
from chaos into being.
A mudfish climbs
laboriously
up rungs coded
in catgut,
bases for evolutionary,
revolutionary
leaps
to frogs,
to rabbits,
to kangaroos
pole-vaulting
to young men
stringing messages
in beaded ciphers
for posterity.

Suzanne Gray Woodward

Back to the Astrophysicist's Tango Partner Speaks