Black Death

A poem about...

The Mongols crossed the Russian Steppes,
To conquer and to kill us,
But a greater slaughter followed them:
Bubonic plague bacillus.

When plague broke out in Mongol troops,
Who besieged a Black Sea fortress,
They loaded up their catapults,
With the victim’s bloated corpses.

Black Death spread from there to Europe,
In rats and fleas and sneezes,
Millions died in lands that weren’t
Immune to such diseases.

Victims cough and vomit blood,
And cannot catch their breath,
Fever, swellings, blotches follow,
Then delirium and death.

Though the plague kept coming back,
In each new generation,
Its killing power got less and less,
When it underwent mutation.

Remember these bacteria,
Which are living things that spread,
to survive must find another host,
Before the one they’re in is dead.

So less lethal forms of plague bacillus,
That get more folk infected,
Will outcompete more deadly sorts,
And be naturally selected.

Like other epidemic bugs,
You might want to tell your teacher,
Plague evolved to change in time,
Like any living creature.