urp II

Methanogens detox ungulates' gut
by stripping hydrogen out of the chyme,
that forms when fermentation's firmly shut
from oxygen (if only for a time).
What's once produced is belched into the air
to trap IR--'though UV shines right through.
A threat to which we're slow to grow aware
as we poach in our man-made greenhouse stew.
A million years of symbiotic bliss
recycling cellulose into prime meat
could make a sterile Venus out of this
blue planet as it traps more of our heat.
Our steak in worlds to come's ever more dear
if we must buy it with our atmosphere.

hot air

Oligosaccharides we can't digest
are clipped to methane by our symbiotes.
Archaea who've long been our GI guests,
have wed their fortunes to our gastric lot.
Electron-transport stalls at Hydrogen
or ethanol, or lactate where air's scant.
but H2's gobbled by methanogens
that tolerate an atmosphere we can't.
It's gluten takes the rap when bellies bloat,
or when a bank of fog swirls in their head.
Now, fussy eaters get a doctor's note;
it's all the rage to swear off eating bread!
The staff of life on which the West still leans
next year, the faddish diet foreswears...beans?

electron transport

the last electron splits dioxygen
when ox-phos stocks the store of ATP
it's obligate for aerobes such as men
but there're more options lower on the tree
reducing water, sulfate, CO2
depending on their phylum and their class
Archaea would thrive on a witch's brew
but bloat a mammal's gut with noxious gas
methanogens are doing what they must
to spare us hydrogen's toxicity
and some like thermite can reduce mere rust
microbes engaging in metallurgy
you've seen one vertebrate you've seen them all
diversity's the province of the small