Two intimate kilos

John Bennett

for my mother

I’m trying to picture your final world. Outside - blue sky,
Inside - bone white, antique white, eggshell, pearl, oatmeal
or page white - the off white I’m traversing in black ink.
I should give thanks to bacteria, archaea and eukarya
that kept you alive for 96 years - which I inherited
on my perilous journey down your birth canal.
I was drenched in your microbes and in the first few days
augmented my microbiome cradled with your milk.
You said I was a greedy baby. I blame others for my thirst.
Over half my cells are foreign and I’m not talking blood-
drinking, shape-shifting reptilian humanoids. If people knew
of our intimate lives would we care more for all the others?
We are ignorant of what is keeping us alive - clean air,
clean water, rich soil. We destroy what is keeping us alive
and kill our cousins. We are so closely related to all life.
I’ll search dusty records of how everything worked, fit
together, check sketches and paintings from a time before
an archival anatomy of hominids we should learn to love.

I cooked for you last summer and you enjoyed the food,
but your appetite walked away months ago, you must
be a featherweight, leaving no impression in the mattress.
Groceries have come to a standstill. Your stomach
will be shriveled. Your gut wore a coat 2cm thick
made from 1,000 species counting up to 100 trillion.
What a spectacular microbial ecosystem we possess,
its efflorescence salient for mind and immunities.
Who cares for the poor starving bacteria?

You have stopped taking water. My brother put a sponge
to your lips, you grabbed the stick and wouldn’t let go.
Your grip surprised him - holding on for dear life.
When the heart stops, brain cells die in minutes,
muscle cells can hold on for several hours,
skin and bone cells can stay alive for days.
Your microbiome will change little for days, then lose
diversity, a forensic tool for life, scribbled somewhere
in the laws of nature. A part of you remains alive.

The Science

The title, ‘Two intimate kilos’, refers to the weight of our incredibly rich and diverse gut biome, without which we could not live. Occasionally, things go wrong, but overall, our biome is a success story of mutualism; we all benefit. There is also increasing evidence that our biome play an important role in mental health, as well as physical.

An old friend, now departed, paleobotanist Mary White, called herself a “proudly bacterial Gaian” and later rephrased it, changing, ‘pride’ to ‘humility’ . . . “Here I am, my cellular endosymbionts performing their housekeeping duties within every individual bacterial cell of the 100 billion, of more than 200 different types, that contain my DNA; knowing what to do and when to do it; enabling the metabolism that keeps me alive; providing the neurones that enable me to think and begin to understand a little of the meaning of life” (recent estimates suggest we work with 1,000 different species of microorganisms).

We share air and water, and about 50% of our DNA with bananas, a popular fact. Less well know is that the shared genes mostly regulate the more basic functions common to nearly all eukaryotic cells. We also share with all living things, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), an energy-carrying molecule used by the cells. If we understood just how deeply connected we are to all life on the planet, we might take more care of other species, their habitats and ecosystems.

I loved my mother, who died in January, and take comfort in her long story and relish for life. I share this miracle of existence, a mystery we seem to take for granted. Two weeks ago, I was diagnosed with cancer (operable). I feel so fortunate to be alive on this amazing planet - and sad that we are treating our own species, as well as all the others, so badly.

The Poet

John Bennett is an award-winning Australian poet and after working for NSW National Parks & Wildlife, gained a PhD for ‘A New Defence of Poetry’. He moved to regional NSW over a decade ago and immediately involved himself in the cultural life and the citizen science of the region. His work increasingly incorporates his video and photography into texts. See photovoltaicpoetry.com.au for more info.

Next poem: 3.9.2.haiku by Maryalice Yakutchik