long ago our skeletons/were mere calcium deposits on cartilage/but the construction crew brought them to usefulness/in less than a year

and aligned with the spine were esophagus and heart/and twin kidneys singing a riversong/to bilateral symmetry

the bisected and tri-lobed brain/grew a mini-mall of services/to motivate and control and evaluate

and nonhuman migrant workers/were installed in cells/to process oxygen and nutrients

and finally we were brought/from the inside out/innards and all

and there were surprises in every package of us

and we grew more surprises at every stage

(thank heaven and goodness and reality/for the good surprises/and unthank the cruelty of harsh pranks of nature and circumstance/for those surprises that punch and fell)

the best we can do is gird our innards for the wars of acquisition and maintenance and priority

spit in the face of evil and threat

laughing and grinding all the way

showing we have guts