Front Porch Review
A literary magazine for the young at heart and mind

It is reliably reported
by unimpeachable scientific sources
that the brains of cockroaches
contain antibodies
that kill all manner
of antibiotic-resistant microbes.

Yes, things like MRSA,
the staph infection that you get in hospitals
as an untreatable souvenir
of your 3-day $17,149 adventure,
may actually be cured
...and by cockroaches no less!

The eternal roach promises to save the day,
rescuing mankind from
the hubris of that vicious cycle
...where blockbuster antibiotics
...promote the evolution of microbial resistance,
...which leads to new antibiotics,
...that result in still newer resistance,
and so it goes
...on and on
in the never-ending evolutionary war.

Soon biotech geneslingers
will vie for exclusive
roach-farming rights
and set up roach-brain-vaccine production lines.

Patents will be granted on cockroach brain-milking machines
and vast armies of roaches
will stream from behind refrigerators
in an endless march to the farmstead
where they will happily be nurtured
while their brains are sucked out
...homogenized and pasteurized
and loaded into sterile syringes.

What a denouement,
...as modern miracle drugs
...are defeated by mindless microbes
...and mankind is rescued by cockroaches.

Would Kafka be laughing or crying?

By Joe Glaser

Joe Glaser was a successful business technocrat who, upon retirement, morphed into a perpetual student of the liberal arts and sciences. No one was more surprised than he. A perceptive observer of human nature from many angles, Joe has discovered the power of poetry for sharing insights, emotions and humor. He also pursues candid travel photography and enjoys finding natural vignettes that display the human condition in interesting ways. He says it beats the hell out of working. His e-mail address: Joe Glaser