disease has no morality
and antibodies
are blind to whom they protect
cellular insurance
bought with a wince
and a cry

that small pain, forgotten
in minutes
buys a lifetime without braces
and canes, free
of the hiss of ventilators

or rooms
still full of toys
echoing absence

but they say these shots
are poisoned
with western interest

and there is a politics
that prefers death
to sterility
though dead children
can’t make babies
and immunized ones can
eventually

sugar cubes and needles
were never the enemy
but ignorance and fear–

those things kill
and spread faster than any virus