Surgeon General's Warning

Epigrammata 36

1968: The 25 millionth smallpox vaccination.

O! In our time the science assures
Their diseases are worse than their cures;
It would be with such an ease
To not first suffer their disease--
But patience is a virtue, they said
And what but death may make man dead?
Like a strange painting of fractal space
As I look, more deeply disease I trace--
It may not be that disease that we face.