Along the arterial highways, Through the cross-roads and trails of the veins They are ever on the move— Incarnate strife, Reflecting in victory, deadlock and defeat, The outer campaigns of the world, But without tactics, without strategy.

Creatures of primal force, With saurian impact And virus of the hamadryads, The microbes war with the leucocytes.

Physicians watch the conflict— Advance, respite, recession and advance— They shake their heads and murmur, "Body versus organism," "A question of endurance," "Try out transfusion," "Pour in fresh troops."

With flush and pallor alternating, Pulses racing, slowing, flickering, The body sinks, Like a derelict with a mutinous crew, Steamless and rudderless, Taking its final drubbing from the sea.

Once it was flood and drought, lightning and storm             and earthquake, Those hoary executors of the will of God, That planned the monuments for human faith.

Now, rather, it is these silent and invisible             ministers, Teasing the ear of Providence And levelling out the hollows of His hands, That pose the queries for His moral government.