Poetry Thursday- My Favorite Poem When I Was Wee

Strictly Germ-Proof
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.
— Arthur Guiterman

This was one of my three favorite poems when I was little. My mother used to read it to me. I used to beg and beg her to read it to me. I think she had to read it so often that she memorized the poem.

I think the funny words fascinated me and I loved the way she read "they froze it in a freezer that was cold as banished hope" and I wanted to bathe in pure idoform a dozen times a day.

Poetry Thursday