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Davina E Solomon May 2021
We thought of us today as single cells
'Ciliating' across the universe of colour
under the coverslip of time; a microcosm
of pedalling plants or fettuccine of cells.

The hues of darkness are pink and bright,
in beach slippers tracing paths on glass,
and those springing Vorticella are flowers
we created in our fictions of science ...

But all possess a veneer bound
cytoplasm of affection, crawling like
Annelids across the void in a world
bursting in avatars of the invisible

or their transparent real selves
glowing like gemstones in the sky,
or simply opaque as we are, each
to the other under the play of light,

polarized views secreted within some
dark muddied pond, harbouring
the cells of love, shedding cuticles
of sorrow, laying the germ of tomorrow

or funneling delight in little green globes
that make food ... are food. We must be
blessed to be cytoplasm like them or cursed,
I don't know which, but it's all profound.
Blepharisma is found in fresh and salt water, is a unicellular ciliated protist and is pink due to the presence of the photosensitive pigment, blepharismin. These pink creatures are photophobic, seek out darkened areas and lose their colour or die in strong light.

Vorticella is a ciliated protozoan with a stalk that is made up of a contractile organelle which serves as a molecular spring, so it can contract. This organelle or spasmoneme is said to have a higher specific power than the engine of the average car.

Volvox is a green algae that forms spherical colonies of up to 50,000 cells and live in freshwater habitats.

Cyanobacteria are Gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis, also called blue-green algae but aren’t eukaryotes like algae.

Stentors are among the biggest known extant unicellular organisms and also ciliated.

Annelids belong to phylum Annelida that includes earthworms, leeches and the microscopic polychaete worms, oligochaetes.

Cytoplasm is the jelly like substance within the cell membrane, excluding the nucleus. All together, they make the protoplasm of a cell.
Michael R Burch Apr 2020
The Evolution of Love
by Michael R. Burch

Love among the infinitesimal
flotillas of amoebas is a dance
of transient appendages, wild sails
that gather in warm brine and then express
one headstream as two small, divergent wakes.

Minuscule voyage—love! Upon false feet,
the pseudopods of uprightness, we creep
toward self-immolation: two nee one.

We cannot photosynthesize the sun,
and so we love in darkness, till we come
at last to understand: man’s spineless heart
is alien to any land.
                                   We part
to single cells; we rise on buoyant tears,
amoeba-light, to breathe new atmospheres ...
and still we sink.
                              The night is full of stars
we cannot grasp, though all the World is ours.

Have we such cells within us, bent on love
to ever-changingness, so that to part
is not to be the same, or even one?
Is love our evolution, or a scream
against the thought of separateness—a cry
of strangled recognition? Love, or die,
or love and die a little. Hopeful death!
Come scale these cliffs, lie changing, share this breath.

Keywords/Tags: love, microscopic, amoebas, pseudopods, microbes, photosynthesis, darkness, night, stars, evolution, shared breath
MdAsadullah Dec 2014
You want to judge the book;
Or you are curious and keen.
Gibingly you ask about microbes.
With Naked eyes unseen.

Fourteen hundred is the age.
Yet you can scratch your head.
I know it is not going to help.
Because you're alive yet dead.

You think you're very literate.
Yes it speaks about microbes. *
But are you literate enough?
Then there were no microscopes.

They discover and boastfully talk.
As if they've created, never they stop.
Compare themselves with God.
But their origins are in ***** drop.
***

Glory be to Him Who created all the pairs: from what the earth
produces and from themselves and FROM THINGS UNKNOWN TO THEM. (Qur'an,36: 36)

… And He creates OTHER THINGS YOU DO NOT KNOW (Qur'an,16: 8)

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The above verses indicate the existence of life forms unknown to people at the time of the revelation of the Qur'an. Indeed, with the discovery of the microscope, new living things too small to be seen with the naked eye have also been discovered by man. People have therefore begun to learn about the existence of these life forms, indicated in the Qur'an. Other verses which point to the existence of micro-organisms, which are invisible to the naked eye and generally consist of a single cell, read:
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… He is the Knower of the Unseen, Whom not even the weight of the smallest particle eludes, either in the heavens or in the earth; nor is there anything smaller or larger than that which is not in a Clear Book. (Qur'an,34: 3)

Not even the smallest speck eludes your Lord, either on earth or in heaven. Nor is there anything smaller than that, or larger, which is not in a Clear Book. (Qur'an,10: 61)

***********************************************************
There are 20 times more members of this secret world, which is spread all over the planet, micro-organisms in other words, than there are animals on Earth. These micro-organisms, invisible to the naked eye, comprise bacteria, viruses, fungi, algae and Acarina (mites and ticks) . They also constitute an important element in the balance of life on Earth. For example, the nitrogen cycle, one of the fundamental components of the formation of life on Earth, is made possible by bacteria. Root fungi are the most important element in plants being able to take up minerals from the soil. The bacteria on our tongues prevent us being poisoned by food containing nitrates, such as salad stuffs and meat. At the same time, certain bacteria and algae possess the ability to make photosynthesis, the fundamental element in life on Earth, and share that task with plants. Some members of the Acarina family decompose organic substances and turn them into foodstuffs suitable for plants. As we have seen, these tiny life forms, about which we have only learned with modern technological equipment, are essential to human life.

Fourteen centuries ago, the Qur'an indicated the existence of living things beyond those which can be seen with the naked eye. This is another spectacular miracle contained within the verses of the
Qur'an.

— The End —