Written in 2004

i.
  A code, a vital cipher rests inside
  The seat of ev’ry cell of any kind,
  Identical and replicate, a guide,
  An evanescent blueprint, undesign’d.
  As angel’s hair, in filigrees unplann’d,
  Like serpents, helices enwrap, combine;
  Entwin’d and twirl’d, these tortive, wreathen strands,
  Decide, dictate, delineate, define.
  Attenuate and taeniate (and wound
  In spirals sinuous) the pairs of twin
  Phosphoric sugar’d backbones coil’d, bound;
  A mere four letters varying within.
    A masterplan prescribing ev’ry trait
    That is possess’d: compact, complete, choate.

ii.
  Begin the steps with which life is express’d
  In concrete form from abstract template, but
  Exonic fragments only, while suppress’d,
  Remainder’d junklets, ort-strewn splicings cut.
  On scribes’ approach, seducees acquiesce;
  Its quarry met, pursuer ends its chase
  With factor’d kiss, promoted tryst, caress,
  Preluding an adulterous embrace.
  By gently rippling eyelet, peephole splay’d,
  Usurper cleaves the twins, eschewing one;
  Once text is read, and mirror’d copy made,
  Volute reverts, parenthesis undone.
    At terminus, from downstream split, a clone,
    Flies nascent transcripp’d messenger, alone.

iii.
  Away from ribbon’d cores, a shunn’d impasse,
  The heralds flee their parents geminate,
  Diffusing out throughout host’s plasm mass,
  They seek and spy, pursue, disseminate.
  A-quest the dancing heralds nimbly flit,
  To find a weaving sibling and reveal
  The vital threads together that they knit—
  Didactic filament and spinning-wheel.
  From invert rules, their letters group’d in threes,
  Cross-loops of clover-leaf transfer, translate;
  Until a stop is found amongst the keys,
  Multiparous the looms intercalate.
    Completion. The participants retreat
    And circle on: reprise, recur, repeat.

iv.
  Each woven amine sequence forming rays
  Anfractuous, in rivel’d ravel’d skeins,
  A plexus folding in, entwist’d maze;
  Attractions vary’d ruck entangling chains.
  Resultant raddl’d strains of ev’ry sort
  Repel invaders, course, communicate;
  And others do yet more: propel, support,
  Enliven, catalyse, and suscitate.
  Though miniscule these gossamers, throughout
  Creation not a mite nor mote could take
  A halting step or feeble breath without
  Each moke, each net, each nest, each mesh opaque.
    And only once remade, arch-cipher, true,
    Does bootstrapp’d cycle start afresh, anew.