The Microbe's Serenade Poem by George Ade

A lovelorn microbe met by chance
At a swagger bacteroidal dance
A proud bacillian belle, and she
Was first of the animalculae.
Of organism saccharine,
She was the protoplasmic queen.
The microscopical pride and pet
Of the biological smartest set,
And so this infinitesimal swain
Evolved a pleading low refrain:

'O lovely metamorphic germ,
What futile scientific term
Can well describe your many charms?
Come to these embryonic arms,
Then hie away to my cellular home,
And be my little diatom!'

His epithelium burned with love,
He swore by molecules above
She'd be his own gregarious mate,
Or else he would disintegrate.
This amorous mite of a parasite
Pursued the germ both day and night,
And 'neath her window often played
This Darwin-Huxley serenade—
He'd warble to her every day
This rhizopodical roundelay:

'0 most primordial type of spore,
I never met your like before.
And though a microbe has no heart,
From you, sweet germ, I'll never part.
We'll sit beneath some fungus growth
Till dissolution claims us both!'