Current

And it’s off! It’s propelled by the sparkly stuff,

The new pictures of people all processed above

And then fed to this neuron; his job is to rush

Down the river that’s cold, filled with ionic slush;

Then his neurotransmitter converts him to clouds

Made of chemical signals that swarm like a shroud

Up towards the next neuron. The enzymes attack,

But enough of the message survives past the gap

To be able to change to electric again.

His mood’s positive now as he starts to ascend

Up one dendritic tendril, he moves with the group

Now, combining their efforts to swim through the soup

Of the neuron’s cell body. Collectively they

Are formidably forceful, they barely delay

So the axon is passed through at terminal speed,

Our original signal’s last terminal deed

Was to merge with the surging electrical mob.

He is no longer He; He is They; They’re a blob.

They’re expanding beyond all their previous shapes,

Down the downtrodden lanes of the brain they escape,

And they’re flexing their power to zip like a fly

Through a vortex from cortex to cortex. They try

To restrain their own eagerness, get to the task

That the pictures of people initially asked

Them to do; they flow straight to the spine.

To the arm, to its muscles they next head, a line

Of commands to extend and release with the hands,

For the boy in the boat to push off from the sands.

But before they arrive the boy looks at his friends,

At the river ahead that he knows only ends

With more water; a broader and deeper expanse,

Which is ruled by cool quantumness, randomness, chance…

And before he is conscious of choosing to go,

The command is in motion already, and so,

Once the muscles are finally active enough,

They nudge forward the boat, gently nudge, and it’s off!