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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


MANHATTAN MALADY by MARION DOYLE

First Line: SUBWAY-STREPTOCOCCI / TEAR THROUGH THE ENTRAILS
Last Line: ON THAT LONG-GONE SEPTEMBER AFTERNOON?
Subject(s): ISLANDS;

Subway-streptococci
Tear through the entrails
Of Manhattan: the island
Shivers with sudden ague,
Trembles with intermittent fever;
Its epidermis breaks with strange protuberances --
Wen and blister, furuncle and papulai --
(Can it be possible there is need to mention
The Proud Flesh?)

Who will isolate this devastating
"Micro-organism of a genus of bacteria
Grouped in long chains and dividing in one plane,
Causing erysipelas, etc.," and restore
To the embarrassed lady her school-girl-complexion
That so intrigued an old roue named
Hendrik Hudson
At their first rendezvous,
(Chaperoned by eighteen Old Salts!)
On that long-gone September afternoon?



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