you'll be next

the current plague

of diabetes quite

adds up to be, 

it seems to me,

akin to dying and the dead

canaries silenced

in one unstable blackened

Utah coal mine.

you know

it cannot hang unsaid:

the implication,

dear dunderhead,

yet seems to’ve gone

quite undiscerned, 

I’ve quite well learned.

and it is not

a gratifying sign

and in no way a merry thought;

but do keep that in mind.

for needed revelation,

herewith a sulfurous

prognostication,

one thought of mine:

for those who stand

so proud sky-high,

those not yet diabetic,

you’ll be next in line …

to go.

(Author’s note: The above

prompted by Our Stolen Future

by Colborn et al. … and, of course,

by my own diabetes.)