1. one
2. and one
4. and another and another
8. even more, spread out in one short string
16. their viral multiplication continues unchecked until they burst the arbitrary bounds of a page’s single line
32. it’s surprising how few iterations it takes before the seemingly well contained has burgeoned into something anarchic that tests its own limits by oozing into space it was never meant to occupy
64. then, by a miraculous fiat without will, motion without impulse, the undifferentiated mass takes the autocatalytic leap into a specificity that marks it out as unique unto itself, multi-cellular, afflicted with an identity, burdened by a name, complex enough to inject confusion into the waiting world, capable of both love and annoyance, then, at last, the slow decline from explosive imaginarium to senescent disarticulation
32. the rise and fall, the passage of the sun from morning into night, the autumn apples rotting in the grass, the millennial empire mighty in its day yet scraped from our memory
16. cellular breakdown draws our thoughts to death, but seen afresh, it reveals an act of generosity
8. a necessary contraction doesn’t necessarily spell the end
4. another and another and
2. one and
1. one