Hopkins

 

I was twenty when

I worked at Johns Hopkins;

the medical school, a lab,

mentored by professors,

research funded by

an assortment of sources

(mostly federal.)

 

I saw basic research.

I learned techniques.

I was educated in the what

and why and how of research:

how what we did each day

fit into the jigsaw puzzle

of medical research.

 

That research, that mentorship,

depended on funding

that is being taken away.

Without that start, I’d not have

gone to grad school, 

met the man I married,

had a job in California.

 

Where I worked  

toward a cancer cure—

on federal funds.

We moved the ball a little

toward that goal. Who knows

what we might achieve

if those funds were still there?

 

A poor bargain for us,

for our modern Judas:

trading our future 

for a few pieces of silver.