The Epic of Mesenchymesh

Joseph Zarin - UC Davis

V:50 I:4 Creative Corner Winner

The Epic of Mesenchymesh

In the realm, Endothelonia
Along the banks of the Red River
A young cell dreamt
To see the Spleen and the Liver

But he was bound with his brethren
Enshackled by chains
The world, his vision
Mesenchymesh, his name

He preached to his kin
"There is more, there is more!"
But the germ cells just laughed
The elders only ignored

Hepatocellular catacombs!
Splenic pulp, red and white!
The ebb and flow of the auricle
Not the left, but the right!

Mesenchymesh's words
Finally rang through
Unto the ears of a friend
Endokidu

They spread the gospel,
Of which they were emphatic:
"To truly reach enlightenment
Was to become Metastatic"

"What's that?" "No way!" 
was the buzz around town
"Can we truly be free
And not be bound?!"

"Yes, yes, yes,
YOU can be free!
You can see the world,
If you trust in me"

One by one,
Two by two,
What once was farce
Became the truth

Mesenchymesh led
With Endokidu at his side,
They set out at dawn
Along the sanguine tide

The auricular appendage
Was their first destination
And then on to the parenchyma
Of the pulmonary persuasion

They found safe haven
In mesentery and skin
They explored the darkest crypts
Of the intestine

Mesenchymesh, on his throne
Now many moons passed
Looked down at his empire
"I have seen all, at last

Yes, yes, yes,
From cranial to caudal
My kingdom is as vast
as my nucleus is mottled

My skeleton, fragile
My cytoplasm, blebbed
My comrade, Endokidu
Is apoptosed and dead

My progeny prosper,
In a comfort-filled bliss
With their mitoses eternal
Ungrateful little....

I earned the trust of a people
I broke their chains
I paved the path untraveled
I took the reins

'All Mesenkind shall knoweth my name!'
This, the future I saw as a 'blast
But now there is no future
And 'Mesenchymesh' is only the past

I built you from a vision
Micrometastatic to gross
Hemangiosarcopia
Now, I will watch you necrose

I recite this soliloquy
A king, tired and weak
Atop my oncogenic throne,
As everything fades to pink"