Poem #12 —Odysseus, the Sperm and the Egg
By Sara K. Vogeler — From my Poetry Portal
— to my mentor of 50 years, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
— drawn from the video:
Watching the East River
while teaching about our beginnings
I see how the sperm swim north
through the alkaline darkness
of the uterine wall
urged by hormonal secretions
past Scylla and Charybdis
who guard the cervix
towards the crown of light,
the Corona Radiata,
that illuminates the way
to the secondary oocyte
waiting to be touched,
in about 30 minutes.
The sailors who survive
(only 150 out of two hundred million)
follow the tide into the fundus
through the oviduct to the ampulla (the flask)
filled with holy water
where fertilization takes place
as the egg
has ripened and ruptured
from the Graafian follicle
and now waits for Odysseus
to arrive in time —
within 48 hours.
He is the only one
selected to enter the chamber,
by his wife Penelope
who has “scensed” him,
who has picked him
from all the others,
who has known who
he would be before
he was born and has waited
an eternity
for this moment
to come.
He bows his head
to be cleansed —
removing his cholesterol crown
before speeding
to the ZP3 receptors.
and kisses her as
she lifts her skirt —
the zona pellucida
around the egg —
so he alone can tunnel
into a whole universe
that has been
waiting 40,000 years
for the human dance to begin.
Kissed by Odysseus,
the secondary oocyte
completes meiosis.
She allows his numbers
to slide into her deepest self
to be joined together —
23 becomes 46
chromosomes and life begins.
The mitochondria disintegrate
that propelled the sperm,
(like the oars of Homer’s Galley).
There’s no turning back
as the sodium ions
close the membrane
to the others —
the 149 suitors who will
never reach Olympia.
In support, the suitors
drum on the conceptus
to make it stronger,
to protect it
with their heads
pointing into the oocyte
and send it spinning
through the Aegean Sea
of the uterus
swimming madly,
to help bury their future
in the uterine lining.
2 to 4 to 8 to 32 cells —
zygote to morula to blastocyst —
where the trophoblast and embryoblast
give meaning to what becomes
Telemachus, the son of their union,
who will be born
“far from the battle”
as his name implies
at 9 1/2 months.
The centrosome
directs the
microtubules
into sets of 3’s
with two centrioles on either end
that help generate the spindle fibers
that separate the chromosomes
along the equator to make
elegant genetic constellations
of DNA, our stored personal experience
on earth, over 400 billion years old
suspended in the galaxy
where stories of survival
become coded into stars.
Odysseus with Penelope,
once guided by the polar body,
have found themselves at home
at last, through Ursa Major
way past the fallopian tubes
into the fourth dimension
where there is only Space
and the Now
and soon,
their little one.
Author: Sara K. Vogeler started writing again after moving to a quiet apartment on the East River in New York City. She incorporated her writing into her dancing, and now into her hands-on therapies as a Master Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist. Check out her website and her 8-wk seminar on natural pain relief at https://www.TheNeuroMuscularCenter.com.
The Takeaway by Lewis Harrison “Ask Lewis”
I love writing and reading poems. Poetry bypasses my left brain intellect, and connects that part of me that seeks meaning, rhythm, emotional resonance, and literary texture.
For me, the best poetry has a natural richness of meter, intonation, and rhythm.
Many readers of poetry, aren’t aware of the fact that rhythm and meter are different, though closely related. Meter brings the definitive pattern established for a verse, while rhythm is the actual sound that comes from poetic words, and phrases.
I have many friends and associates, who write wonderful poetry. Usually, they drop their creations into a Facebook post where it is likely to be noticed by less than 25 people. I have decided to create a Poetry Portal in a number of wonderful publications on Medium.com. Here I have gotten permission from my poet friends and associates to repost the writings of these gifted creators.
Here is an introduction to this series of poems.