Iris Lowe
Just Go, Little Hatchlings
Shed your shell, all you hatchlings!
Your arms and legs pumping and flailing,
pumping and flailing, desperately, furiously,
the light still blinding your baby-new eyes.
No time to waste, just go.
Go!
Go!
You don’t need to know where you’re going
or where your journey will end.
Has the end even entered your tiny mind?
Your precious light-crowned life has just begun!
You don’t need to know or understand
what you’re doing, where you’re headed.
You don’t need to think at all!
Those flailing appendages are all you need to get going.
Billions of years of evolution got you this far
and for about the first three of them
all you needed to live
fit into just one cell.
Imagine it, no need even for arms, wings, legs -
flagella were enough.
All movement and direction according to
a single simple binary code:
towards what’s good for you
away from what’s not.
Just trust those flailing limbs
to take you where you need to go.
See that bright patch ahead,
the brightest patch in all that blinding light?
Aim for that and just go.
Shed your shell, all you hatchlings!
Your arms and legs pumping and flailing,
pumping and flailing, desperately, furiously,
the light still blinding your baby-new eyes.
No time to waste, just go.
Go!
Go!
You don’t need to know where you’re going
or where your journey will end.
Has the end even entered your tiny mind?
Your precious light-crowned life has just begun!
You don’t need to know or understand
what you’re doing, where you’re headed.
You don’t need to think at all!
Those flailing appendages are all you need to get going.
Billions of years of evolution got you this far
and for about the first three of them
all you needed to live
fit into just one cell.
Imagine it, no need even for arms, wings, legs -
flagella were enough.
All movement and direction according to
a single simple binary code:
towards what’s good for you
away from what’s not.
Just trust those flailing limbs
to take you where you need to go.
See that bright patch ahead,
the brightest patch in all that blinding light?
Aim for that and just go.