A love-lorn microbe met by chance
At a swagger bacteroidal dance,
A proud bacillian belle, and she
Was first of the animalculae.
Of organisms 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, ev'ry day,
This rhizopodical roundelay:
" O 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. "