Living
Strictly Germ-proof
From The Home Book of Verse, ed. Burton Egbert Stevenson (1912)
The Antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup
Were playing in the garden when the Bunny gamboled up;
They looked upon the Creature with a loathing undisguised;—
It wasn't Disinfected and it wasn't Sterilized.
They said it was a Microbe and a Hotbed of Disease;
They steamed it in a vapor of a thousand-odd degrees;
They froze it in a freezer that was cold as Banished Hope,
And washed it in permanganate with carbolated soap.
In sulphureted hydrogen they steeped its wiggly ears;
They trimmed its frisky whiskers with a pair of hard-boiled shears;
They donned their rubber mittens and they took it by the hand
And 'lected it a member of the Fumigated Band.
There's not a Micrococcus in the garden where they play;
They bathe in pure iodoform a dozen times a day;
And each imbibes his rations from a Hygienic Cup—
The Bunny and the Baby and the Prophylactic Pup.
Cite this poem
MLA
Guiterman, Arthur. “Strictly Germ-proof.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/guiterman/5/.
Chicago
Guiterman, Arthur. “Strictly Germ-proof.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/guiterman/5/.
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