-Virginia Fox, vaccinated-

                 drying-up

                 at the half-length mirror

                 it’s hard not to notice the convex
                 arch of the belly, the drapery

                 of skin at the fore-neck, the blue-

                headed retraction

                into the tangled thicket and the remnant

                of a grade school’s polio vaccination

                which by this time has all but vanished.

                a more direct examination reveals

                a clearer image of what was once

                a robust site, the nucleus

                surrounded by the tension

                of healing hairline fissures.

                now it’s seen as a dot, unremarkable,

                although the glazing is brighter there

                than the pallid skin surrounding it,–– like

                a primordial pool.

                from the corridor, the jolting

                bell calls us to our desks, but first

                a close examination is made of the injection site

                below the left shoulder of Virginia Fox, interrupting
                the slow-arching smoothness of her skin there.

                It will soon become a confection of sorts,

               more of a blooming,–– a dandelion’s petals

               circling the gleaming at the hub and little sense of a wound

               and because of this, it’s Virginia Fox who comes to mind this morning.