Poetic Profiles of a Mother and Son : CLAIBORN

CHAPTER 1: THE WORKINGS OF WANDA P There are 10 million, million cells in the human body. There are several million skin cells in the palm of your hand. When groups of specialized cells team up together, they form tissue. When a lot of tissue works together, it forms organs such as the heart, the liver, lungs etc. A network of organs working together form life. Every individual cell in the body eats, breathes, wastes, rests and in it’s time dies, much like humans. When skin cells die, they flake up and fall off the body. When internal and organ cells die, they flow out through the waste system. White blood cells live about13 days. Red blood cells live about 120 days. Nerve cells however live up to 100 years, but they can never be replaced. Nearly 3 billion cells die a minute. The plus side is that there are 3 billion born every minute to replace dead ones. This was at least how it was designed in the beginning. In the beginning. All the cells worked and lived in their respective communities. Each performed their duties for the body. Every cell was content. The one true rule from the beginning was to be fruitful and multiply. No more, no less. Every cell was equipped naturally to do what they were intended to do. The scene fast forwards to the modern cell community. It’s nothing like the original community. Many different groups of cells have evolved and teamed up against other cells. Large groups of cells have migrated to other parts of the body and colonized. Over time, the distribution of the energy throughout the body has been un- evenly divided. Most of the cells are constantly at odds, ignorantly trying to figure out a solution for the chaos that they themselves have created themselves in the name of advancement. We will first meet Hemo, a working class red blood cell. He does pretty well for himself and his family. He works at an energy processing plant. He often struggles with his perception of who and what he is. He is always looking at other cells in envy, often over-looking his own uniqueness. He is quickly offended when anyone makes mention of his red bloodedness good, bad, or just in general. We then run into Blanco, a lower middle class white blood cell. He is a member of the protection force. He like Hemo does pretty well for himself and his family. He is very prideful of his white bloodedness. Sometimes his pride makes him ignore his personal flaws. By nature, Blanco is a fighter. He is fearful of anything he doesn’t recognize or know anything about. Whether it’s a threat or just a passing virus, war is his answer to every conflict. Blanco is a power freak so he often makes alliances with let’s say ethically challenged cells if they can offer him the thought of a higher position above other cells. We now run into Eyish, an old grumpy nerve cell. Nerve cells naturally live a lot longer than other cells. Their job is to carry messages from the brain to the rest of the body. Over time that got boring to Eyish and his fellow nerve cells decided to come up with a so called better way. Nerve cells use their knowledge of Wanda P to try to control and change things to fit their needs. Over the ages, the nerve cells have tried to figure out how to reproduce like other cells. Eyish is wise but stuck in his ways. The nerve cells were left responsible for educating the cell community and teaching them history. For whatever reason, they decided to change things up for the benefit of the cells: nerve cells that is. We now get to meet Skinner the old skin cell. He is probably the wisest of them all. He knows the truth about Wanda P. When conflicts arise in the community, he tries to give the other cells the simple answer to the problems but they never listen. They figure because Skinner is a stationary cell, he doesn’t know anything. He actually is one of the few cells who do what they’re supposed to do. His life to other cells seems boring though. The last character we meet is Deity, the diatom. Deity is an alien water cell whose ancestors came to Wanda P ages ago. He also has a better understanding of cell life than others. Deity is a shadester. He ultimately wants to control everything in Wanda P and if he can’t control it, he and his diatom regime would rather destroy it. As the chapter ends, Eyish the nerve cell and Blanco the white blood cell are standing on a hill over looking the cell community. Eyish is running a plan for cell domination across to Blanco. He’s acting as if he’s taking Blanco on as a partner but really he’s just trying to use Blanco’s strength and weapons to subjugate the rest of the cells. Blanco thinking this is an opportunity to advance over others listens and smiled devilishly soaking it all in. In the last scene, Deity the diatom is off in the distance looking at them smiling even harder. The whole area begins to rumble slightly as if it’s an earthquake or something. (Really Wanda P has gas) ha, ha, end of the chapter!