We
The number of bacterial cells you harbor exceeds the count of your own body’s cells by 10-to-1. —Science News
They hew to every cleft
and fold of us. Drift like snow
across our bodies. Snuggle like clams
into every wet depression.
They help us digest, make vitamins,
fight one another, make peace
keep us healthy, make us puke.
Sort themselves into cliques,
assemblies. Hold court in
our intestinal villi, inhabit
the ramshackle tenements
of our puckered skin.
We are more other
than us. The me
gets lost among
all those thems.
Hello, I say. Greetings,
little ones. Welcome
to my body.
To our body.
Us.
Hello out there,
from all of we.
—Steve Tomasko, Middleton
