Hurry, hurry to the parade

Of the strangest creatures ever made.

No legs, no fins, no mouths, no eyes,

Little beasties of the tiniest size.

Far too small for the eyes to see

“Just how small is this menagerie?”

Image, Zac, if you can,

A tiny dot, a grain of sand.

Break each grain into tinier ones still

Into a thousand, if you will.

Into each minigrain (big enough),

Thousand of germs you can stuff,

Whit lots of room for every germ

To swim and tumble, turn and squirm.

Want to see them, every kind?

“Where to look, and how to find”?

Everywhere! In soil and air

They’re on your skin, your nails, your hair.

From between your teeth, scrape out some goo

Or take some dirt from your shoe.

Spread it on a clean glass slide,

Under a microscope magnified.

Now peek through the lens, and in the light

A new world appears. Fantastic sight!

Rods, short and long, dart in and out,

Among dead stuff they weave about.

Germ can be wispy or thick or round,

All alone or in groups they are found.

“Wow! A hairy monster is swimming!”

And there’s a snaky thing that’s wriggling!

“Can these germs live inside me?

In dogs and cats? In a fish? In a tree?

Yes, ZAC. It’s unquestionably true,

Within your bowels there is quite a zoo

Some germs are helpful, really good guests,

While others can hurt you. They are the pests.

Now I’ll describe germs good and bad,

And boys and girls, made sad or glad.

Staphylococcus aureus (Page 5)

Salmonella typhi (Page 11)

Clostridium tetani (Page 17)

Saccharomices cerevisiae (Page 23)

Streptococcus pneumonia (Page 29)

Myxobacterium Xanthus (Page 35)

Helicobacter pylori (Page 39)

Penicillium notatum (Page 43)

Poliovirus (Page 49)

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (Page 55)

The Intestinal Menagerie (Page 61)

Mycoplasma mobile (Page 69)