Poem A Day, 005

A little behind, and off-prompt again, this is my offering for Saturday.
  Distancing

A little behind, and off-prompt again, this is my offering for Saturday.

Distancing

The pattern emerges:
 a microscopic microcosm
 Strands of protein huddle close
 a joyful wriggle,
 then like a child’s game,
 they rend apart
 holding onto threads until
 the wall comes down
 separating one into two,
 whole and different
 wholly removed.

And so I wonder,
 does the pattern repeat?
 Parent and child huddle close,
 then tottering on wobbling legs,
 holding hands until fingertips
 brush apart until
 life lowers a veil
 and two lives divide,
 whole and separate and
 wholly different.

Is it a function of survival,
 this distancing?
 Or encoded in our cells?
 Do we brace away from
 one day’s goodbye?
 Do we push away on purpose,
 in breathless exploration
 or to protect ourselves from loss,
 knowing
 even in our cells,
 that one day,
 we will do the same,
 that we will split apart
 and float away?