Parasites

Parasites

Out there in the wood
Is the old oak tree,
Just lapping-up the sunshine,
All of it for free.
But there in its branches,
There lies the mistletoe,
Just sucking-up the sap
Of its clueless host below.
And there on this shrub
Is a little caterpillar,
That’s munching on the leaves
Like a cute and stealthy killer.
And inside of the bug there lurks
The grubling of a wasp,
As it chews-through the organs,
Squatting like a boss.
But inside the grubling
Is another, smaller maggot
Of a teeny-tiny wasplet
That will wear it like a jacket,
And inside of the maggot
Is a nematody worm,
And further inside that
There is a microscopic germ…
So they each are chowing-down,
And they each are getting fatter,
Till they burst-out of the body,
That they leave in such a tatter.
But the enemies of enemies
Don’t turn-out to be friends agen –
Just ask the plague that bit the fleas,
Then bit the rats, then bit the men…

Of course, inside of every cell in every multicellular-body’s body is the remains of a possible parasite, in the form of mitochondria.  But over time, evolution tends to find that the healthier a parasite can leave its host, the better the tenant does as well.  But bacteria can get in on the act as well, with their viruses that would co-opt their landlords into making a sex pilus to infect other neighbours, and accidentally carried across some of their host’s DNA with them and thus enabled the unintended spread of antibacterial resistance…