On a blustery Sunday in May
an odd little message came my way
on a whispering wind from the west
in the strangest code it was dressed
Abel, Cain, Jacob, Esau, Samson, Delilah, it said
Single or married, we're all cut down in the end
Madame Curie, Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Christianity
Science's gleaming Cross wreathed with rosaries
Once the meaning I grasped, I inhaled to gasp
when struck dead by Cleopatra Philopater's asp