Microbes once decided to have a contest,

To decide who amongst them was the best.

They assembled together into a team,

Staph aureus leading the way for the Gram positive,

E.coli doing the honours for the Gram negative.

Entamoeba was the choreographer, Ascaris the chief guest,

Judges included Fungi, Cyanobacteria and the rest.

Sponsored by Bacteriophage, whishing them all the very best,

Agar-agar the official carrier of the test.

Came in E.coli on Endo agar with a metallic sheen,

S.aureus could do nothing but on crutches lean.

Motile Vibrio decided to glow,

But equally fluorescent Pseudomonas gave him the blow.

Then entered Bacillus, the temperature soared.

Enterobacter felt uneasy, the audience roared.

Streptococii arranged themselves in chains,

Out came Corynebacterium with its palisade.

Salmonella on TSI showed its hues,

This gave Mycobacterium the blues.

Then came in the estuarine beauty,

The orange pigmented Haloarchaeal cutie.

With its growth at high levels of sodium chloride,

Who else could the judges choose to ride,

The chariot of fame, the eubacteria to tame?

The viral antigens decided on a battle,

The 'guinea pig’ Homo sapien was forced to settle,

The battle of supremacy, the battle royal,

To test the immune system, if it was loyal.

The influenza virus showed its might,

Immunoglobulin M, G and A rose to fight.

The GALT and the BALT rose in union

With the Peyer’s patches in the ileum.

Then the measles virus found its way,

NK cells decided to sway,

Armed with granzyme and perforin,

The virions could do nothing but refrain

Mumps virus thought it best,

To follow measles in the test.

CMI sent out the magic interferon,

Virally infected cells were taken head on.

HIV virus was the last to enter

The immune system was hit in the center

T helper cells were alarmingly fading,

T suppressor cells on the contrary kept on rising.

Seeing the immune system crack,

The Homo sapien decided to act,

Doses of HAART he forced into him,

Which controlled the viral replication, or so it seemed.

All this left the poor human weakened,

In spite of relief he was sickened,

Then crept in death, the unexpected guest

Thus putting an end to the Homo sapiens life quest!