Everyone’s Afraid
Janet Kuypers
4/21/21
My immune system has been wreaking havoc on me
(I can’t say my father never gave me anything), for
with his genes, my cells stopped fighting against viruses
that wanted to swell my random joints into balloons.
Exhausting every homeopathic option I could muster,
I finally relented, perusing the pharmaceutical library —
took one drug after another, until they dropped me in a study
for a regular injectable drug they say is set to save me.
I don’t eat meat, I care for all the world, and my thanks
is a virus trying to make me explode from the inside out.
So me and my suppressed immune system saw no difference
in a new pandemic. Now everyone’s afraid... like I always am.
A year passes, and like a good little soldier I don’t question
what’s in an untested vaccine, and I don’t react to shots,
but with this second shot, I was reminded of what this virus
can really do, with every joint aching as I fever the pain away.
So as I lay here sick, only wanting to be better, I learn
that there are more microbes in my body than human cells.
We try to fight these miniature invisible monsters, but... if
less than half of me is even human, then, what on earth am I.
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