The Wheel in Nature
Saint Paul, 28 Septemberl 2006
The problem of supplying a freely rotating organ with
blood vessels, not to mention nerves, that don't tie
themselves in knots is too vivid to need spelling out.
~ Richard Dawkins
Subgroups of specialized ants
tend and milk their aphid cattle
Yet pumps, clocks and calendars
arrive unheralded in nature's firmware
An inquiring culture might excavate
butchered animal bones and quarry
primitive stone tools. They also might ask
Why don't animals have wheels?
Humanity could adopt a true axle or
Grow a rotating hub by will, but would we
pump plasma and dispatch directives
to some apocalyptic appendage?