IT’S TURTLES, ALL THE WAY DOWN

      There’s nothing in the universe that’s not
      Alive, nothing inanimate, inert,
      Though seeming so to those who haven’t got
      The means to see what molecules exert,

      How even atoms bind strange energy
      And then, still deeper down, dark forces play
      Unknown roles and enigmatically
      Control the cosmos with their covert sway.

      All this is life, in fundamental form,
      For nothing is inanimate that moves:
      These elemental energies that swarm
      Do so as some dark mystery behooves.

           It’s all alive—the whole cosmic shebang:
           Though you see only yin, there’s also yang.

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