Flu Poem by Sandra Martyres

Beware all you carnivores
Flu is adding to your sorrows
We first heard of Foot and Mouth disease
The one that finished sheep with ease
Then came Mad Cow Disease
Or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
And its human version Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Beef went off the restaurant menus
MC Donald’s and Burger King
Really felt the beef sting
When their cash registers ceased to ring
Soon suspected herds of cattle
Were unceremoniously destroyed
And governments declared using all their gumption
That beef was safe again for human consumption

Just when we thought CJD menace had ended
Another even worse virus on us descended
Avian Flu or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Took the world by storm forcing people to stay home
Masks, disinfectant soaps and vaccines
Were the order of the day
If someone sneezed you just ran away
Travel advisories were quickly released
Each time a new locality
Reported a case of the disease
Medical Researchers worked night and day
To produce vaccines that would keep the Flu at bay
The incidence of the disease had begun to decrease
And everyone looked for some peace

Then came a new version - the infamous Bird Flu
Chickens were slaughtered by the score
To ensure that the virus did not spread or grow
Imports of bird meat came to a virtual halt
The prices crashed, chicken farmers went bankrupt
There was a clear fear psychosis
That quickly led to a kind of neurosis
But with all the preventive measures and costs incurred
This epedemic too was controlled and normalcy returned

Today Flu has been taken to a new level
The pig or the swine is the latest devil
The virus was reportedly born in Mexico
But no one knows for sure
Governments are not taking any chance
Quarantine Zones are being set up to enhance
Awareness and to identify possible carriers
At airports, seaports and all other travel queues
Of course bacon is going off the breakfast menus
And no one talks about Porky the cute little Pig
He is now referred to by the swear word swine
No longer can we dismiss this problem in lighter vein
Swine Flu is causing even stock markets some pain
The Sensex, the Dax and the CAC are all on the wane
For which the blame is pinned on the speading swine flu
No one knows the damage it will finally do
To the world's tottering economies
Already grappling with other crises