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                    In 1996 alone, between one million and three
                    million people died of malaria...someone dies
                    of it about every 15 seconds--mostly children
                    and pregnant women...A more fundamental
                    problem is that many people cannot afford even
                    ordinary mosquito nets, which cost $5 or $10.
                                  --NY Times, 1.8.96

Think of your body growing cold     again.
Think of what fades     and what survives.
Think not of the dark wind, rain
a-sway over villages     apples & leaves

Snow lies on the clay. Mosquitoes
& silver coinage. Malaria.
Mysterious unjust angel of woe,
hysteria...     head down in the white.

And through the fetters of a flimsy lattice
or stage-struck curtain--     an extended paw
quilled with fabled disappearances--that
mole of metaphysical law--

Shakespeare     vanished into pseudonyms
trimming his nails     frozen     sheer

---

Henry Gould | Island Road 53
Contents | Mudlark No. 6