Nitrogen Song

As nature shakes winter's sharp sting,
this protean poem unfurls into broad notes of spring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One thing broke me;
         two built me back.

Fall in FScN 4612, Human Nutrition,
each lecture softening the edges of my circumscribed truth.
Studies strive for stolid statements,
         but humans refuse to cooperate.
We fictionalize what we ate yesterday,
we guess at how often we eat fish,
we tick the same box for grass-fed beef,
         for venison,
         for McDonald’s Hamburgers.

I crumbled under the weight of peer-reviewed articles,
at odds with each other,
squinting their way to the truth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What is protein?

Amino acids line up according to ancient instructions,
attract and repel each other,
furl into microscopic protein machines,
group and grow to make
this protein machine,
complex
and
communal.

What is protein?

Endless variations
on precise combinations
of essential and nonessential amino acids.
Essential amino acids —
the ones this protein machine
can't make,
the ones this interdependent machine
needs from a complex of plants and animals.

What is protein?

It is nitrogenous,
it is cyclical,
it is costly —
it is life; it is death.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, feet planted in soil,
eyes raised to the sun,
I throw my arms open to complexity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The stanzas now unfurled to the broad notes of spring:
What harmonies do you hear? Which melodies do you sing?

This poem is on on-the-fly retooling of the 2015 lyric essay, Renewal. Retool. Remake., performed at the UMN-TEP dietetic internship graduation of the 2015-2016 class.