I'm very pleased to announce that this new poem has been published in Issue 4 of Consilience: https://www.consilience-journal.com/issue-4
A bacterial cell wall’s view of penicillin
I shroud the cytoplasmic.
Membranes are worth protecting.
Peptidoglycans grow my
spinal column; they cross-link.
A rigid reticulation dear to an absent heart.
There are meshes everywhere.
They make life interesting.
My viability rests
on transpeptidase;
it works
The cross-linking with fake needles and instant jurisdiction.
Penicillin is my nemesis, like reverse satin.
It enters my habitat,
binding to transpeptidase.
Such a bold beta-lactam!
It shocks me,
I’m answerless.
My mesh is inhibited.
I wither on vines that burn.
I’m trashing around now, touching nothing
….ex-reprobate.