Thursday, July 15, 2021

The Microbe (#Poem)

 


The Microbe

The Microbe is so very small
You cannot make him out at all,
But many sanguine people hope
To see him through a microscope.
His jointed tongue that lies beneath
A hundred curious rows of teeth;
His seven tufted tails with lots
Of lovely pink and purple spots,
On each of which a pattern stands,
Composed of forty separate bands;
His eyebrows of a tender green;
All these have never yet been seen--
But Scientists, who ought to know
Assure us that they must be so...
Oh! let us never, never doubt
What nobody is sure about!

-Hilaire Belloc


Hilaire Belloc was an English Catholic writer (though born in France) who died  in 1953.

Just back from a most of a week in the wilds...



8 comments:

  1. hope you had a great sojourn! great drawing! the poem's okay; i admit to not being a heavy Belloc fan: he had weird ideas...

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    1. Yes, well, I wouldn't go to Belloc for his politics...but I do tend to like his poetry.

      Not my drawing: I Googled paisley and then stole one that was a bit pink and purple. ;-)

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  2. Ha, I like the teeth! Back from the wilds? Any outdoor reading materials? Was it just last summer we were reading Hopscotch? Phew, I feel like that was a hundred years ago! And, simultaneously...did I even actually read it?

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    1. I took a couple of books...of course. Coming up soon!

      I keep thinking I should reread Hopscotch & try to write about it. It was fun to read it together, but a tough one to write about.

      I've been thinking about his short stories, too. Have you read any of them?

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  3. I love the last two lines of the poem. I've been reading that the human body is made up of three times the number of bacteria and viruses as it is cells. Our microbiome. They help keep us alive. So fascinating to think about ....

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    1. It is weird and fascinating all the stuff that's been coming out about the microbiome over the last few years. Eat more yogurt and pickles, I guess!

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