Today, we call it the Black Death.
Medieval times called it Blue Sickness.
An epidemic spread by living breath,
But mostly flea vectors flow of viscous
Causing fevers, chills, and extreme weakness.
If diarrhea was all you got
Consider yourself one of the few blessed.
For other’s appendages blackened and rot,
While the growth of buboes progressed.
Yersinia Pestis, it fury behest.
Pneumonically, the droplets carried,
And through fluids, the Bacillus is spread.
-Three forms, unique yet varied.
A bacteria, bringing nations great dread.
And leaving two-thirds of the population dead.
Through centuries, they could only fear the plague
As it brought countries to their knees.
Their knowledge to fight it was too vague.
A pandemic spread by a simple sneeze,
Or when one got bit by an infected flea.
Today, antibiotics can curve this beast.
And we see fewer transmissions.
The death toll has decreased.
And even though Yersinia Pestis is not in full remission.
Thank goodness for medicine and physicians.
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Yersinia Pestis
by Stephanie Daich
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