1 There is a simple principle
In the fourth dimension— time.
When a process is sequential.
It must perform each step in line.
2 We didn’t come here in a “poof”,
Or instantly sublime.
Rather, we were built— not just one cell,
But each atom at a time.
3 Our DNA plus all with it
Constructs things on command.
Assembling the atoms,
As it builds things on demand.
4 Because it is machinery,
Which makes it work this way,
It doesn’t just show up
With a magical display.
5 So without a machine to step through
each link within the chain,
Nothing will ever happen.
There'll be no useful gain.
6 It follows the genetic plan
One atom at a time,
Because the machinery, which makes it work
Is a programmable enzyme.
7 So when we change the order
of the atoms in its line,
We’ll build something that’s different
Each and every time.
8 The process is so very much
Like this poetic rhyme.
If we rearrange its letters
Its function’s lost each time.
9 So—
We can build ‘bout anything
Our little hearts desire,
By rearranging genes and things
Without a furnace or a fire.
10 What’s more the atoms we’re made of
Are made of resonant fields.
That likewise are machinery.
Producing everything it yields.
11 They’re organized, these force fields
That work in perfect queue.
Precisely interacting
To make things old and new.
12 Just as chemistry is consistent
Faithful and reliable.
It’s built from field machinery,
Which makes it work and viable.
13 And as water can be made
Burning hydrogen in a flame,
Which interacts in sequence
To make results the same.
14 It is the flow of energy,
Around and round in fact,
That keeps this ball of energy,
In atoms still in tact.
15 So when they touch another one
They don’t just mush together,
But sequence through each cycle’s glue,
To build a force-field tether.
16 It’s really very accurate
And not random anything.
It follows predetermined plans
Locked in its field-flow ring.
17 Only machinery gets it right
And remembers how to do - it
It’s not by random anything,
For that would make it quit.
18 Expanding ever upward
From this foundation here
Whether you’re building big sky scrapers
Or brewing a fine beer.
19 The physics always works the same
It’s as reliable as can be
So we know it’s not uncertain
But, we're certain how things will be
20 So—
Nothing happens without reason.
It’s not magic we unmask,
Only a machine could sequence through
To complete its every task.
21 The same with life’s machinery,
On the subatomic scale.
Its manufactured organization,
Along its predetermined trail.
22 Just because it is complex,
Many features cute and slick,
Doesn’t mean it’s not built up
By machinery, brick by brick.
23 Each gene’s a series of instructions
Telling the cell just how to build.
What’s been sequenced in its DNA
By instructions fully filled.
24 So—
Who put the wiggly tail on sperm?
That makes it swim so fast?
Heading for its happy home,
To build you or me, at last?
25 How does the egg respond?
Grabs the first sperm swimming by
Then rejects the other ones.
To stop the other guy.
26 It doesn’t do it just for fun,
It’s programmed in our genes,
To do each task in sequence,
By predetermined means.
27 That’s why it’s always easier
To build things that don’t work,
Than to build one that will do it well.
It’s by design, it’s not by quirk.
28 So have a cup of tea my friend,
Relax with your sweet wife.
And contemplate what happens with
The Machinery of Life.
by John N. Hait
