Young mango plant
Young growing seed
Push from the tumbling mess of weed
And gain the sunshine, gain the air-
Gain the microbe -but beware!
There lurks one special microbe here
Awaiting cuts and scrapes
He enters wounds and then insists
The host cell replicate
By conjugating with a plant,
He crosses all the lines
And forces all your cells to make
The food of his design
You’ll replicate incessantly
And form a barky ball
Abnormal growth for all to see
From one microbe so small!
Your kingdom is his kingdom,
Though he never was invited
Genome contaminated
When he thinks he is a virus
Beware this little microbe
Who seems to’ve lost his senses
Keep growing, but when cut
Prepare to booster your defenses
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.