Emerg Infect DisEIDEmerging Infectious Diseases1080-60401080-6059Centers for Disease Control and Prevention332308203-103010.3201/eid1004.031030Another DimensionThreat of the SporesVoraSetu K.42004104751751It is difficultto get the news from poemsyet men die miserably every dayfor lackof what is found there.“Asphodel, That Greeny Flower” by William Carlos Williams, a physician and poetBeware the threat of the spores,Bad news parcels bide their time.They lurk to enter the unsuspectingAnd unleash dormant evil that multiplies.The twin rings of code within are culpritsSpawning the Unholy Trinity of toxins.Inject to bleed, swell, and destroy,While the “protective” antigen does anything but.Skin lesions black as the namesake coal,Pale in comparison to the inhaled disease.Finely milled, known simply as Ames strainArtificial and abhorrent agents of terror.“Alpha” bacteria,Germs of the germ theory.Origin of the famous postulates,Crafty bugs made cruel by man.Brought home the nesting-doll syndrome,Envelopes, spores, bacilli, plasmids.With it the fear and the frenzyTo cure what we create.