Borrowed Machinery
Asystole

I travel light, a genome and a coat,
I need your ribosomes to keep afloat.
I find a receptor, get myself inside—
Your busy little workshop is my ride.

Coronavirus brings positive-sense R-N-A,
Ribosomes can read it straight away.
New viral polymerase can copy more,
Through a negative template behind the door.
Influenza brings a negative-sense plan,
Packed with a polymerase to help it begin.
That enzyme makes the messages to read;
Host ribosomes supply the proteins we need.

Attach, get in, uncoat the plan,
Borrow your ribosomes while I can.
Copy the genome, build and assemble,
Release new particles; let the next cell tremble.
Different genomes, the same dependency—
A living cell and borrowed machinery.

Many D-N-A viruses use a nuclear room,
Make messenger R-N-A; let the proteins bloom.
Pox brings transcription gear for the cytoplasm floor,
Influenza uses the nucleus for part of its tour.
Retroviruses reverse-transcribe to D-N-A,
Integrate; host-made transcripts lead the way.
Different routes to the message we read,
Translation is the common thing we need.

Different genomes, the same dependency—
A living cell and borrowed machinery.

Coronavirus says, "Remdesivir joins the show;
Its active form can make my R-N-A polymerase slow.
Nirmatrelvir blocks my main protease,
My polyprotein cutting can grind to a freeze."
Influenza says, "Oseltamivir's at my gate,
Inhibits neuraminidase; new particles wait.
It interferes with release from the cellular shore—
Fewer successful departures to knock next door."

Polymerase makes the nucleic-acid chain,
Protease cuts proteins in the production train.
Neuraminidase helps influenza leave;
Three different targets for the drugs to seize.
Each antiviral has its own range to cover—
One virus's treatment won't fit every other.

Attach, get in, uncoat the plan,
Borrow your ribosomes while I can.
Copy the genome, build and assemble,
Release new particles; let the next cell tremble.
Different genomes, the same dependency—
A living cell and borrowed machinery.

I travel light, but I need your whole town.
One well-placed block can slow the workshop down.