Another Way Out
Asystole

We fought for food before you knew our names,
Bacteriocins in our neighbourhood games.
Then you walked in with a drug and a plan—
Hello, white coats. Catch us if you can.

Some defences come built in: intrinsic is the name.
Acquired resistance: new genes or a DNA change.
Mutation rolls the dice; selection keeps the score,
Susceptible neighbours aren’t growing anymore.
The resistant ones have room to grow,
A little more space in the old front row.
We split in two, pass the trait along—
Now our daughters know the song.

Break the drug, change the target,
Keep it out or pump it out.
Bypass the block, keep the pathway moving—
Another way, another way out.
You bring the pressure; the survivors grow,
Pass those genes to the next front row.
Hear that tiny, stubborn crowd:
“Another way, another way out.”

Klebsiella grins, “Penicillin? Come inside.
I’ve got beta-lactamase here on my side.
Hydrolyse that beta-lactam ring—
There goes the bite, there goes the sting.”

Staph says, “mecA codes P-B-P two-A,
Keeps my wall cross-linking through the day.
Most beta-lactams bind it poorly, see?
A different target does the job for me.”

Enterococcus calls from the back,
“D-Ala-D-Ala to D-Ala-D-Lac.
Change the end of the wall precursor chain,
Vancomycin struggles to bind again.”

Pseudomonas whistles, “Watch the door:
Fewer porins, less gets in than before.
Efflux pumps send their drug cargo out—
Less drug inside. Now hear me shout!”

Break the drug, change the target,
Keep it out or pump it out.
Bypass the block, keep the pathway moving—
Another way, another way out.
You bring the pressure; the survivors grow,
Pass those genes to the next front row.
Hear that tiny, stubborn crowd:
“Another way, another way out.”

“You block my folate pathway; I’ve a spare:
A resistant reductase working there.
Dihydrofolate reductase—same reaction to do,
But trimethoprim binds poorly; I can still get through.”

Yesterday we fought for every bite;
Your plasmid brings resistance here tonight.
We’re rivals at the table, elbowing for space—
But useful DNA can cross from place to place.

Conjugation—cell-to-cell,
A plasmid copy travels well.
Transformation—take it in:
Free DNA, new traits can begin.
Transduction—a bacteriophage
Can carry genes onto another stage.
Horizontal gene transfer, passing them around—
A borrowed escape in a microscopic town.

Biofilm matrix, neighbours packed in tight;
Some persisters can outlast the fight.
Tolerance buys time; resistance lets us grow
At drug levels that would stop susceptible foes.

“Clean our hands and break the chain,
Test which drugs can stop your strain.
Use them wisely, curb your spread—
We can close the road ahead.”

Break the drug, change the target,
Keep it out or pump it out.
Bypass the block, keep the pathway moving—
Another way, another way out.
You bring the pressure; the survivors grow,
Pass those genes to the next front row.
Hear that tiny, stubborn crowd:
“Another way, another way out.”

Under your microscope, under your nose,
The next round starts where the glucose grows.
Somewhere in that tiny crowd:
“Another way… another way out.”