The Somatic Economy: An Epic of Flesh and Finance

Canto I: The Grand Interior State

Of Soma's vast and vibrant, living state,

Where every cell is bound by common fate,

I sing the epic, the bio-economic tale,

Where Capital is measured, lest we fail.

A nation built of water, bone, and nerve,

Whose intricate exchange all life must serve.

No gold standard rules this inner sphere,

But Glucose, the bright currency held dear,

And Oxygen, the breath of every trade,

The vital tender that the lungs have made.

The Brain, the sovereign, seated on the height,

A Central Bank that governs day and night,

It sets the rates of speed and slow decay,

And dictates where the precious stores will lay.

Its Hypothalamus, the fiscal mind,

Adjusts the market, leaving none behind,

For Homeostasis, the law of perfect peace,

Is the sole dividend that brings release.

Canto II: The Import and the Infrastructure

The Gut, the great Port Authority of man,

Receives the raw goods, following the plan.

Through acid tariffs and enzymatic might,

It breaks the imports down from dark to light.

The Villi, countless brokers, small and keen,

Extract the Micronutrients, rich and lean,

The Amino Acids, structural bond,

The Fatty Chains, for which the cells are fond.

Then flows the Bloodstream, the grand, arterial road,

A complex, pressurized, and pulsing load.

The Veins, the slow return, the commerce spent,

The Capillaries, where the goods are sent.

The Plasma, clear as any flowing stream,

Transports the Hormones, messages supreme,

From Endocrine, the regulatory board,

Whose chemical decrees are all adored.

Canto III: The Cellular Labor Force

Behold the Cell, the factory, small and deep,

Where countless, tiny, tireless workers sleep

And wake to labor, driven by the need

To turn the currency to vital deed.

The Ribosomes, the printers of the code,

Produce the Proteins, bearing every load,

The enzymes, structures, all the tools of trade,

From blueprints that the Nucleus has made.

The Mitochondria, the power plants that burn,

The coal of sugar, lessons they have learned.

They take the Pyruvate, the fuel refined,

And through the Krebs Cycle, perfectly designed,

They forge the ATP, the energy,

The coin of effort, spent constantly.

A constant, humming, high-demand flow,

To keep the Somatic Economy aglow.

Canto IV: Reserves, Debt, and Defense

The Liver, vast and prudent, holds the key,

The Treasury of the body's energy.

It stores the Glycogen, a ready fund,

To be released when markets are unbound.

And when the feast exceeds the daily cost,

The surplus wealth is never truly lost.

The Adipose, the savings, soft and wide,

The Capital Reserves where future needs reside.

A debt of flesh, a mortgage on the frame,

To guard against the famine and the flame.

The Immune System, the Defense Department bold,

A standing army, neither bought nor sold.

The Leukocytes, the swift, patrolling guard,

They fight the foreign agents, fast and hard.

A constant budget spent on watch and war,

To keep the gates secure forevermore.

For Inflammation, the costly, fierce defense,

Is the price of peace, the ultimate expense.

Canto V: The Inevitable Balance

The system runs, a marvel to behold,

A billion transactions, never bought or sold,

But simply done, by mandate and by law,

Without a single moment of a flaw.

The Kidneys, the Waste Management supreme,

Filter the byproducts of the living dream,

Recycling water, casting out the spent,

Maintaining balance, perfectly intent.

Yet even this great system, finely tuned,

Must face the final market, soon or mooned.

The Telomeres, the bonds that hold the line,

Are spent like currency, a slow decline.

The Metabolic Rate, the final cost,

The interest paid on all that has been lost.

And when the Heart, the pump that drives the flow,

Declares its final, irreversible "No,"

The grand economy, the vibrant, living state,

Achieves its final, silent, balanced fate.