The Tardigrade

Science Sonnets

Cute, huh? Some people call it “water bear.”
Go get a microscope and have a stare.
Count up the legs. Yes, eight. Now take a pause
And notice that they’re all equipped with claws.
Keep looking and you’ll see it squiggle-squirm
(Which made an early watcher coin the term
“Slow Walker”). Life in wetness makes one slip;
Good thing it has those claws to get a grip!
It’s famously persistent, hates to die.
Crush it, freeze it, fry it—go on and try.
A sample was exposed to outer space
And it survived. On Earth there is no place
It won’t abide: woods, oceans, mountain tops.
It does walk slowly but it never stops.

—Henry Rathvon