Yesterday was the last day at work for my boss. It was hard to say goodbye to him as he was the one who brought me on board when I came back to California from New Orleans many years ago. Harder for him as he had been with the company over 21 years. All the poems I found about saying goodbye were about people dying which was not at all appropriate. However he is a delightful Frenchman (who has never lost his accent) and this is a delightful poem by a Frenchman with just the sort of attention to detail I think he’d appreciate.

This is from More Beasts for Worse Children by Hillaire Belloc. Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (27 July 1870 – 16 July 1953) was a French born writer who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. More on Belloc at wikipedia

The Microbe

The Microbe is so very small
You cannot make him out at all,
But many sanguine people hope
To see him through a microscope.
His jointed tongue that lies beneath
A hundred curious rows of teeth;
His seven tufted tails with lots
Of lovely pink and purple spots,
On each of which a pattern stands,
Composed of forty separate bands;
His eyebrows of a tender green;
All these have never yet been seen–
But Scientists, who ought to know,
Assure us that they must be so….
Oh! let us never, never doubt
What nobody is sure about!  

The round-up for Poetry Friday is over at the hostess with the mostess, Kelly at Big A litte a. Next week’s round-up will be HERE!