Microscopes

Microscopes
by Bill Cohen

I looked into my microscope, and saw some wondrous things.
I saw a fruit fly standing there, with six legs and two wings.
And on its back I saw some stripes, and on its head, oh gee!
I saw the fruit-fly's big red eyes a-staring back at me.

I got a better microscope, to see what more was there.
And then I saw that everywhere the fruit fly had some hair--
On its legs and on its wings and even on its eyes,
Which turned out to be organs made of eyes of smaller size.

I got a better microscope, to see these things so small.
And when I looked at my fruit fly it seemed not there at all.
But in this place on the fruit fly's face that I could see so well,
There was a tiny little sac, a living fruit-fly cell.

I got a better microscope, to see what was inside.
The cells were full of organelles, some narrow and some wide,
Some round, some flat, some thin, some fat, but what I was afraid of
Was that I wouldn't get to see what things these things were made of.

I got a better microscope, to better see this stuff.
And now it looked like curlicues and lollipops and fluff,
And springy, clingy, stringy threads unwound from tiny spools,
And beady blobs with little knobs: All fruit-fly molecules.

I got a better microscope, and looked inside once more.
The molecules wre bigger -- oh, much bigger than before.
And they were all just full of balls of very different sizes
Organized in wondrous ways -- the biggest of surprises.

I tried to get a microscope so I could look right at 'em.
But I found out that every ball was just a single atom.
And though there are some big machines to smash and crash and break 'em,
Microscopes to see inside? Well, they just don't make 'em!


Found here.