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after Allen Ginsberg
I
I sing the mitochondria, Chief Executives of cellular enterprise,
whose double-membraned citadels loom over cytoplasmic sprawl,
issuing edicts from matrix boardrooms, Krebs cycle scrolls unfurled,
OMM and IMM in ER mergers, calcium handshakes sealing fate—
who burn acetyl-CoA in pyruvate pyres, budgeting ATP like Wall Street tycoons,
who sense famine’s tremor, sound AMPK sirens, halt growth’s reckless spree,
who dock at ER ports, trading lipids like futures, whispering calcium codes,
who decree apoptosis with cytochrome c memos, stapling death warrants to caspases,
whose ROS flares light NF-κB beacons, inflaming the cytokine night,
who in stem cell startups pivot from glycolysis to OXPHOS IPOs, maturing into muscle, neuron, blood—
who draft MAVS decrees on viral incursions, RIG-I interns scrambling to interferon war rooms,
who leak mtDNA manifests, TLR9 interns panic-scanning for bacterial spies,
who in macrophage metros reroute trains from oxidative rails to glycolytic sidings, succinate fueling HIF-1’s revolt—
II
What sphinx of malfunction cracks their cristae spines?
Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of fragmented networks! Shuddering Drp1 guillotines!
Moloch whose boardrooms reek of ROS, whose minutes bloat with mutant mtDNA!
Moloch whose BCL-2 barons hoard cytochrome c severance, bankrupting apoptosis!
Moloch in Alzheimer’s fog, amyloid plaques gumming TCA gears, tau tangles jamming dynamin elevators!
Moloch whose PARKIN janitors quit, PINK1 timecards void, mitophagy dumpsters overflowing!
Moloch the Warburg charlatan, glycolytic sweatshops humming while OXPHOS turbines rust!
Moloch whose liver refineries clog, insulin memos returned unread, fatty memos spilling into streets!
Moloch! C-suite of dementia! CFO of insulin resistance! Chairman of metastasis!
III
Mitochondria! I’m with you when ER whispers sweet nothings of calcium,
when nuclei demand NAD+ quarterly reports, acetyl-CoA dividends due,
when autophagic janitors arrive, lysosomal mops slopping debris,
when cytoskeleton elevators stall, stranding you in axonal branches,
when ROS couriers riot, screaming formyl hymns through NLRP3 megaphones—
Mitochondria, your fission is my mitosis, your fusion my kinetochore kiss,
your UPR hymns my lullaby, your mtDNA the ancient start-up merged into my genome—
for you are no mere powerhouse, but CEO of the cell’s electric kool-aid acid test,
O dynamo of life’s boardroom, decreeing thrive or die,
burning the midnight acetyl-CoA, howling into the cellular night—
Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
The CEO! The dynamo! The matrix! The cristae!
Apoptosis! Fusion! Fission! Mitophagy!
Immune sirens wailing forever! ROS memos circulating evermore!
Holy the stem cell’s pivot! Holy the caspase’s cut!
*Holy the Warburg anomaly! Holy the BCL-2 blockade broken!*
The mitochondria are holy! The cell is holy! The CEO is holy!
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