By: Shilpa Rajagopal 

In botany one day we learned about tylosis,
the physiological process – a phenomenon, really-
that protects the heartwood in trees
a battalion of vessels barricading the decay so that darkness no longer enshrouds the wood
…
I sit at my desk, listening to this heroic story
amazed by the resiliency of plants
by the mechanisms of self-defense they’ve created for themselves
and wonder
if there’s something similar
a brigade of undeterred veins and arteries
protecting my own heart
against this world