Questioning Euglena

1. Euglena. So euphonious a name for so inhibited a creature. A million microscopic pond specks, a murky cloud in a laboratory beaker. The students place a tiny droplet on the glass and eavesdrop on the green universe. Lean bodies like grains of rice waving flagellum propellers to navigate, hurrying toward what crucial appointment? Early? Late? In the chemical flicker that passes for thought, what - I wonder, my eye pressed to the ocular - what do Euglena want? 2. Euglena frozen in water wafers - Sixth graders ... specimens ... an experiment But the plastic trays in the Teacher's Room freezer were empty today ... only hours after the faculty party. Imagine the fate: ten thousand shipmates cast off in a hurricane sea of cola swells and carbonated fizz some unsuspecting teacher drank heartily to wash down birthday cake. Could he or they have ever guessed the world was meant to come to this?

3. Human. So euphonious a name for so inhibited a creature. Whose eye, I wonder, through what white-hot lens, looks down on me?