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Song of the Spirochetes (Paulette Meier ©2014, ASCAP)

“After 9 years of dealing with a chronic illness stemming from one tick bite, I decided to write a song about the amazingly resilient bacteria that causes it. Lyme Disease is the fastest growing vector-borne disease in the U.S. This is my attempt to get the word out about this under-diagnosed, misunderstood and often devastating illness. I dedicated this to Willy Burgdorfer, the scientist who discovered the cause of Lyme Disease and for whom the bacteria was named." -- Paulette

lyrics

Song of the Spirochetes
words and music: © Paulette Meier, 2014

1. We are a colony of spirochetes;
We want to grow and multiply.
We all depend on you for sustenance;
We really don’t want you to die.
We’re very sorry that you hurt so bad,
That we cause trouble makes us feel so sad,
But it’s just our way.

2. We’re quite amazing bacteria,
And we come to you from ticks.
Antibiotics are so fooled by us,
‘Cause we’ve got lots of magic tricks:
We can morph into many different forms,
And protect ourselves in cysts and biofilms,
(Till the coast is clear!)

Chorus
Borrelia Burgdorferi’s our name!
Causing Lyme Disease is our claim to fame.
We wish it didn’t come with so much shame;
And we think we’re not the only ones to blame.

3. It seems everyone is out to get us,
So we’ve learned how to hide.
Your body’s defenses are no match for us,
They can’t detect where we reside.
We spiral into your tissues so deep,
Where it’s hard for your blood to reach.
Cause we’re spirochetes!

4. Yes, by stealth we evade your immune system,
So antibodies may be few.
Without them, your blood tests cannot show we’re there,
So results may not be true.
The varied symptoms we create in our hosts
Mislead your doctors so they wrongly diagnose.
(Lucky for us!)

Chorus

Bridge:
We’re not the ones warming up the planet,
So deer tick populations can explode.
We’re not the ones who cut down the big forests,
So foxes and coyotes lost their homes.
We’re not the ones to blame for lack of predators
So ticks have all the food source that they need,
from deer, chipmunks, and mice and other rodents;
We’re transmitted to and from them when ticks feed.

5. Yes, we are a colony of spirochetes,
We want to grow and thrive.
Like others in our phylum of bacteria,
For eons we’ve survived.
Your human ways are allowing us to flourish,
So now from YOU we are finding ourselves nourished.
And you might die. But we’ll survive.
Chorus (last line: “We KNOW we’re not..”)

credits

from Just Earth, released January 1, 2017
Paulette Meier: words, music, lead vocal; Leonard Webb: harmony vocals, John Mooter: keyboard, trombone.

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all rights reserved

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Paulette Meier Cincinnati, Ohio

Paulette's singing and songwriting skills have served the causes of peace, justice, and the earth for the past 30 years. Her award winning children's CD, Come Join the Circle, inspires children in the ways of peace in families and classrooms across the country. More recently, she has turned to promoting inner peace through putting Quaker Wisdom to chant. ... more

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