Homeostasis

Standing still, staying at home,
Racing the Red Queen to work,
Defying dissipation
To get to nowhere at all,
Life, the conservationist,
The nostalgist in defiance
Of getting it over with,

Hungry little bugger, world
Of food and scavenging,
The dream of each cell to be
Two cells, the gaunt and growing
Tree of it, eating its own,
Never content just to lie
Down and be washed by the sun,

Resilient pattern, riddle
Admitting no solution,
Headwaters of stubbornness,
Contrariness, foolishness,
Original Sisyphus,
Pushing thermodynamics
Uphill while falling, the same.