The first beat

Medical science, try as they might,
Cannot find the reason why
the human heart starts beating.
In fact, the heart is the first organ that forms,
then mysteriously, magically,
like a watch wound by the unseen,
it beats.
Before that, what?
Presumably, cells dividing
then congregating.
Is it the energy of that coming together,
that confluence,
that joining,
that merge of many
into one
to become something other,
something greater?
Is it that rush,
that pulsing movement and motion,
that, without reason,
becomes capable of sustaining itself?
That it, in fact,
beats of its own accord,
relentlessly, ceaselessly
gathering to it what it needs
by some primal instinct
extending its still-growing arteries
and veins like tree branches
inside the wall of a womb,
carving out its place in the universe,
its place among the stars,
its place deep within a body
of bloom, blood and bone.