O, our dear oxygen, once so scarce, barely there, not everywhere
In the beginning, did life but despair at your where?
But no, a deadly poison to the soul of life
you were.
Defenceless and naked, single cells would frazzle, by your radical blight
Hush, hush, no, how can it be
O oxygen, I now but depend on thee?
From Blue-Green sun powered cells, effused a noxious enormity of you,
O oxygen, you foul pollutant, who knew!?
Poisonous pollution destined to soar,
Poor anaerobes became no more.
O the losers in this were many.
Life’s first great tragedy, but from the winners
Are we.
Only those primed, spared by previous encounter,
Successfully armoured against this oxidised monster.
From careful dosed poison, selectively evolved, you became their elixir
O oxygen, how you gave them hearts.
Once a lethal dose, turned gateway to multi-cellularity,
Energy efficiency, movement making, bodies bigger, lungs eventually,
Then me.
O, but what now, each breath gifts both life and free radical foe!
Hush now, for complex life sees colour, in our black and white woe.
So consumed in our reactive friend, let’s exploit such toxins,
We now depend
But keep confined this malevolent Hyde, with anti-oxidants, close by.
O bittersweet oxygen, our lifeblood, your dependants we became.
Our magic toxin, you remain?
