Parasites

Nature has a way of really touching you inside

It's a lesson everyone must learn

Ain't no use to try to run away or try to hide

Everyone must finally take a turn

You may be a person who believes it is your right

To be free & independent to the core

But once you learn the ways of these exotic parasites,

You'll see that independence is a bore...

Toxoplasma Gondii is a microscopic bug

Who carries all its genius in its genes

It may be on your fingers

Or the fibers of your rug

But to this bug there's more than it may seem

When Toxoplasma gets into the system of a mouse

It doesn't make him feel that he's unwell

It gives the mouse the energy

To run around the house

& not detect the prowling feline's smell

In fact it makes the mouse

Become attracted to the cat

He doesn't show a single sign of fright

For Toxoplasma seems to know

Precisely where it's at

It is a very cunning parasite

The cat then turns the mouse into a ghost

& Toxoplasma joins its natural host—the cat

NOW YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE

AIN'T IT EASY LIVING AS A PARASITE?

YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING OFF ANOTHER'S LIFE

WHEN YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE

The Lancet liver fluke

Lives in the liver of a cow

& lays its eggs inside the cow's manure

& there it starts an odyssey

Which somehow will allow

This tiny worm to work its way back to her

The fluke-infested feces

Is then eaten by a snail

Who turns the larval worm into a cyst

Excreted by the mollusk

In a slimy yellow trail

But the snail is only first

On this fluke's list

The adolescent fluke worm

Is then eaten by an ant

& it lives awhile as an independent worm

But then it does a special thing

That other insects can't

It infiltrates a group of the ant's nerves

The ant then spends its daily life

As normal as before

Working in the colony all day

But every night the parasite

Residing at his core

Manipulates him in the strangest ways

By the moon the ant will climb

The tallest blade of grass

& sink his mandibles into the tip

& there he will be paralyzed

Until the night has passed

When back into the colony he slips

& this will happen every single night

Until a chewing cow will come to bite...

NOW YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE

AIN'T IT EASY LIVING AS A PARASITE?

YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING OFF ANOTHER'S LIFE

WHEN YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE

The Ampulex Compressa ot Emerald Cockroach Wasp

Is famous for her reproductive ways

For when she has a common household cockroach in her grasp

She sinks her atinger twice into her prey

The first attack will paralyze

The roach's frontal legs

The second one goes straight into his brain

For if the wasp's to have a nesting place to lay her egg

The roach mustn't respond to any pain

The venom doesn't kill the roach

But incapacitates

The nerves that tell his body to retreat

& since the wasp has killed

The roach's instinct to escape

She takes a roach antenna as a leash

She leads him to her burrow

She climbs upon the roach

& lays an egg upon his abdomen

The larva chews itts way

Into its docile captive host

& feasts upon the organs there within

The roach will stay alive

Another week until the worm

Can spin its own cocoon & climb inside

& in about a month

The larval worm has finally turned

Into a wasp who leaves its host & flies

& so the natural cycle is complete

So who says reproduction isn't sweet

NOW YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE

AIN'T IT EASY LIVING AS A PARASITE?

YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING OFF ANOTHER'S LIFE

WHEN YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE

NOW YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE

AIN'T IT EASY LIVING AS A PARASITE?

YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING OFF ANOTHER'S LIFE

WHEN YOU ARE LIVING AS A PARASITE