-and call me in the morning-

standing water

filled the claw-footed tubs

and was deemed safe enough.

polio, with its crippling grip

was rumored to be found in other types of ponds,

fresh water lakes and reservoirs,

the metal-scented puddles of the gutters

laying dormant near the sewers,—

and the red-tinctured

water circling the bobbing

bikini-crowded raft, anchored

in the middle of standing water

at Reed’s Road Beach,— water,

red with algae, red with iodine,

red by the lurking blood of Polio.

hospital beds were isolated.

neighbors inhaled carefully

inside the theaters and groceries

of their neighborhoods.
the Strand on Pleasant Street
pleaded for spare change
during its movie intermissions.
"when you walk through a storm
  hold your head up high.."

everyone seemed to know somebody

who knew someone stricken with Polio.

there was talk of “The Hospital” in Taunton.

from here, “The Virus” was three
decades beyond the shuttered windows.