Two hundred million sperm
in one ejaculation;
and we are standing firm
and spouting with elation,
though but a single germ
survives to incarnation.
And much in nature throws
vast clouds into the ocean,
where myriad embryos
become a magic potion
consumed by all that goes
with food its only notion;
yet one or two survive
to adulthood and, later,
will make the species thrive
and serve up like a waiter
new young crowds that arrive
like cargo crammed on freighter.
This is how nature lives;
we should not think it foolish
eight billion of us gives
but forty fierce and mulish
posthuman narratives,
godlike as much as ghoulish,
in retrospect appearing nature’s plan
for how we cross to Nietzsche’s Superman.
*****
This poem was originally published in the Amsterdam Quarterly, although without the final couplet. I usually allow editors to make changes if they suggest them, and often the changes are an improvement that I retain. But in this case I’m afraid the science fiction speculation may be lost without those last lines: the idea that the present billions of us are on the point of being superseded by the first handful among us who achieve a godlike state of posthumanity… and that this ratio of 200,000,000 seeds being sacrificed to achieve one mature adult in the next generation is not unusual in nature.
Photo: “Stinging nettle stem with +/-15 billion seeds” by esagor is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Form in Formless Times 
Robin, your poem reminds me of this one of mine:
thanksgiving prayer of the parasites
by michael r. burch
GODD is great;
GODD is good;
let us thank HIM
for our food.
by HIS hand
we all are fed;
give us now
our daily dead:
ah-men!
(p.s.,
most gracious
& salacious
HEAVENLY LORD,
we thank YOU in advance for
meals galore
of loverly gore:
of precious
delicious
sumptuous
scrumptious
human flesh!)
Originally published by Setu
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hah! Absolutely, why not? Bugs gotta live too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Unholy Meditation
(after the style of John Donne’s “Holy Sonnets”)
Life has evolved, in spite of Entropy,
Or dissolution into random motion.
A life one drop of water in an ocean
Of Space and Time and radiant Energy
Out of which Chaos comes an Enthalpy
Assembling to itself attractive Mass
Exploded stars’ vast clouds of dust and gas
Collapse. New stars ignite. No Empathy
Forms planets, asteroids, and comets. These
Revolve, collide, till through a process blind
First plants, then animals, then human kind
Appears. Then Habit, Chance, and Law displease.
Each brief life passed, dissolved, no more to know,
To scattered molecules our bodies go.
Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright © 2019
LikeLiked by 1 person
Immortality
(biological – theological – historical)
Eat.
Excrete.
Then procreate.
Your part in Mankind’s fate.
Gods
From clods
Of earth make Men
Who turn to dust again.
Lie.
Then die.
In stone they’ll set
Your falsehoods, then forget.
Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright © 2015
LikeLiked by 1 person