The world is a Petri dish

I don*t think it*s the flu, but almost everyone I know seems to have a cough, congestion and even dizziness. There is a bottle of hand sanitizer outside my office door for all the parents and teachers and children of the morning nursery school.  My son*s father is a tumor immunologist at NIH.  I can still ask him medical questions, if necessary, but now I am married to a political scientist.  The world being a Petri dish has taken on new dimensions.  It*s been a mild winter.  It seems like all the hand sanitizer in the world just won*t do it.

The verdict remains unknown:

Whether hand sanitizer,

Disinfectant wipes,

Bleach

Make the world

A safer place

or merely

Don*t give our immune systems

Practice.

Once we went to the local pond.

They had stocked it knee deep

In fish.

Every small boy had a fishing pole.

It was sunny and warm.

All the parents

Were lined up behind the boys

With buckets.

I sat next to the mother

Of my son*s friend.

She had the biggest bottle

Of hand sanitizer

I have ever seen.

She cleaned her son*s hands

After every fish.

The world is a Petri dish,

The whole blooming world.

The whole blooming stinking wonderful world

Is a Petri dish.

It is impossible to clean our hands

After every fish.

The world is a Petri dish.

It is impossible to know

What might grow.