WORM LIMERICKS
C. Drewes,1997

WORM LIMERICK #1 (circulation respiration)

Did you know there are worms in the lake

Whose conditions we just couldn't take?

With their head in the mud

Always pumping red blood

To make sure that they're always awake.

WORM LIMERICK #2 (feeding and lab culture)

There once were some worms in a tank

That suddenly got very rank

Overfed with fish food

They became very rude

Refusing to swim, they just sank.

WORM LIMERICK #3 (reproduction by fragmentation)

As one blackworm once said to another

I am sure we're both sister and brother

Now, if parents we're seeking

Fragmentally speaking

Our head end's our father AND mother

WORM LIMERICK #4 (regeneration of new body segments)

A worm minus its head or its rear

Would be a certain goner, I fear.

Unless just for fun

Regeneration

Replaced segments lost year after year.

WORM LIMERICK #5 (helical swimming)

If I were a worm like Lumbriculus

With no feet or no legs, I'd kick you less.

But I'd crawl and I'd swim

With a helical spin,

And that would be really ridiculous.