The Flu Shot


The other day I got my annual flu shot
And then I started thinking I should write a poem about it. 

At first I imagined some sort of military analogy,
Throwing a scare into the troops to keep them on the alert, 
Or maybe bringing in fragments of enemy weapons and uniforms
To be analyzed by some immune-system equivalent of the CIA.  

I had an image of cartoon white cells, 
Vaguely humanoid in shape, 
Marching past, row on row,
With rifles on their shoulders
While an unseen band
Played whatever that kind of cell
Might think of as marching music. 

Since I didn't know as much of the details as I would have liked,
And could have used some fresh ideas,
I went to the Internet and started reading.  

Talk about rain on a parade!

What we think we now know about all this 
Isn't like an army at all.  
Part of it is more like police
Demanding that other cells show their papers
And executing any whose documents are not in order.
But that's not the part the shots are for.  

Imagine a horde of assassins, 
Each born with an image of one foe 
Their lives are dedicated to slaying.  
There are millions on millions, 
Each with a different image in mind,
Perhaps painted by some distant relative
Of those monkeys who will some day type
All the works of Shakespeare.  

Each waits patiently 
For its one big chance,
For a villain that looks enough like its assigned quarry
To justify 
Action.  

"I've found something!"
And that one assassin becomes many, 
Sending its children throughout the realm
To seek out and do battle with the invader.  

In this case it's a false alarm, or maybe a drill,
Only scraps of uniforms and broken pieces of weapons,
Or perhaps dead enemy bodies
Or cartoonish buffoonish caricatures of soldiers
Not really capable of doing much.  

Whatever the threat, 
Is is soon vanquished, 
Leaving most of the defenders to fade away.  

But some veterans remain 
And remember,
So if a real invader matching that description 
Ever shows up again
There will be more defenders at the ready sooner,
Giving it less time to establish a foothold.  



                                       -- Thomas G. Digby
                                       Written 2011-10-01 15:59:39
                                       Edited  2011-10-02 17:35:49