Vitamins--1941
VITAMIN A is good, they say, for scaling skin.
Good for the lame, the weak, the halt, the
thin.
Good for the ailing eye, the failing sight,
Facilitating progress through the night.
Good for the lame, the weak, the halt, the
thin.
Good for the ailing eye, the failing sight,
Facilitating progress through the night.
(But are you sure
That it will cure
A Bomb?)
That it will cure
A Bomb?)
Vitamin B has two or three component parts,
Restoring health to livers, spleens and hearts,
The touch that deviates, the hand that
swerves,
The flooded lung, the coated tongue, the
Nerves.
Restoring health to livers, spleens and hearts,
The touch that deviates, the hand that
swerves,
The flooded lung, the coated tongue, the
Nerves.
(But what will stop
The heavy screaming drop
Of Bomb?)
The heavy screaming drop
Of Bomb?)
Vitamin C is said to be a general pill
For almost any common human ill.
From laboratories, heaven-blessed, it comes
And halts the ravages of bleeding gums.
For almost any common human ill.
From laboratories, heaven-blessed, it comes
And halts the ravages of bleeding gums.
(Machine guns can
Affect a man
In any place.)
Affect a man
In any place.)
Vitamin D, you will agree, is very mild,
And yet essential for the growing child.
For if the bones are bowed, the little one
Will have a bent, unsightly skeleton.
And yet essential for the growing child.
For if the bones are bowed, the little one
Will have a bent, unsightly skeleton.
(They mount the things
Upon the wings
And spray the streets.)
Upon the wings
And spray the streets.)
Vitamin E, reputedly, increases birth,
And will repopulate a sterile earth.
The children that we hopefully beget us
May be engendered in a head of lettuce.
And will repopulate a sterile earth.
The children that we hopefully beget us
May be engendered in a head of lettuce.
(My son, when grown,
May then be blown
To many bits.)
May then be blown
To many bits.)
LEWIS THOMAS