Teleology

In the seed lies all that it can ever be,
shoot, plant, flower, fruit and
in the end again, the seed.
In the acorn, the entire tree.

One quark encrypts a universe,
a world unfurls from just one joule
of fire. An atom splits and spews
Japan. Blood, bone, gene, cell

predict events as well as tell them,
and no science, god or creed can
crack the code, unwind the strands
that bind our eyes and blind our hands.

We walk a land that's charted. Even as
one war ends, somewhere the next has started.

Copyright © 2010 Rebecca Foust All rights reserved
from Two Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission