Four million returns of the blazing sun
To the tropical center of being
On skin sun rays take permanent seats
And red streams beneath keep beating
To the tropical center of being
Scents like sirens on the breeze
And red streams beneath keep beating
Tiny predators alight to feed
Scents like sirens on the breeze
Will they die or dine?
Tiny predators alight to feed
With fecundity on the line
Will they die or dine?
Dining may infect new streams
With fecundity on the line
This vector wafts away with ease
Dining may infect new streams
Parasites flowing with each beat
This vector wafts away with ease
As do millions just like she
Parasites flowing with each beat
A child faints suddenly in the heat
As do millions just like she
Too few hospitals for diagnoses
A child faints suddenly in the heat
Prohibitive travel and treatment fees
Too few hospitals for diagnoses
Will it “pass”? They wait to see.
Prohibitive travel and treatment fees
We must make do with mRDTs
Will it “pass”? They wait to see
Millions pass so tragically
We must make do with mRDTs
(Hope the kit will be complete)
Millions pass so tragically
We dread those bands of burgundy
Hope the kit will be complete
For in our health disparities research
We dread those bands of burgundy
Will this experiment work?
For in our health disparities research
We struggle against the tide
Will this experiment work?
We toil deep into the night
We struggle against the tide
Work in aging, muggy labs
We work deep into the night
We publish what we’ve grasped
Work in aging, muggy labs
Where electricity often flees
We publish what we’ve grasped:
Rising temperatures impair mRDTs
Where electricity often flees
Our genes resisted too
Rising temperatures impair mRDTs
Cells set sail as blood-crescent moons
Our genes resisted too
Evolution working in-between
Cells set sail as blood-crescent moons
Through a point mutation from ‘E’ to ‘V’
Evolution working in-between
HbAS, a modest reprieve
Through a point mutation from ‘E’ to ‘V’
Homo, Plasmodium, and Anopheles
HbAS, a modest reprieve
For in this cycle nature spun
Homo, Plasmodium, and Anopheles
We’ve fought (though it’s two versus one)
For in this cycle nature spun
Prey and predator all mixed up
We’ve fought (though it’s two versus one), for
Four million returns of the blazing sun
Esohe Irabor, PhD, is a Nigerian-American public health professional. After graduating from Rhode Island College with honors in biology, she earned her PhD in Biology at Howard University. Her dissertation research was a correlative study on the impact of psychosocial stress on cardiometabolic disease expression in African American communities in the United States. After securing her doctorate, she completed the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s EMURG Health Equity Fellowship (inaugural cohort), and a stint as an Adjunct Professor of Biology at Bowie State University. Now a Public Health Laboratory Fellow (APHL-CDC), she conducts biomonitoring research in central New Jersey.
