Translational Blues

I'm just a peptide chain
looking for structure
looking for my cofoactor
looking for my reaction.

I twist
into what's possible
like when I was five residues
into a helix
and bumped my proline
and it was better to be a beta sheet
the whole time
I'm hydrophobic anyways.

Oh to be stable!
minimize my strain
clear my sterics
but I will sacrifice for the whole
better a side chain conform
than a motif collapse
into unfavorable disorder.

Unless it is beautiful disorder
for sometimes
that's what's needed
to get the job done.

I fear
that by the time
I find my form
I will feel the gentle embrace
of a thousand ubiquitins
who whisper sweetly
as they drag me deep
into the blender.