Totipotency

I encompass all three germ lines.

Revolution I engender, but gender is irrelevant.

It’s evolution I contender, but tender is impertinent.

Mutations fail, but not this time.

I eat but don’t sleep; grow but don’t stop; invade but don’t retreat; fight but don’t surrender; conquer without remorse; never to return to well-ordered stratified cell restraints because

I’m not interested. It’s just not me.

To be or not to be, going from not-being to being.

Manifest destiny to want to be and not not-be, from head to toe; from left to right; from fore to aft.

From shore to fetid shore; from sea to purulent sea.

Tentacles of love, my outstretched, tightly embracing arms.

Don’t think you’re kept or trapped--I’m kept and trapped, so it’s only fair that

What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine.

It’s my turn. Isn’t it fair to take turns?

My convexity is your concavity.

My gain is your loss.

There’s not enough room in here for both of us.

I am pluripotent. I am totipotent. I am omnipotent. I am plural. I am total.

I am ominous.

I will survive. I will prevail. I will be you.

I will take names--yours!

It’s in the stars. It’s in the genome. It’s in the nucleic acids--one rung, on the double helical ladder, at a time.

Poison me with your chemicals and I just turn the other cheek.

Burn me with your rays and I'll shine more brightly.

Starve me of my blood and I'll send necrotic toxins to all of your parts.

I’m a jealous lover and you made me do this.

You had it coming.

No use quitting smoking now.

___________

See related prose at https://vocal.media/fiction/132-irritation, "Irritation."