Malaria

They're a sick fixation
A happily contracted disease
Under your skin, in your veins
Coursing through you, to your heart.

Those tremors, the aching
The sweating and burning
A fever of incurable proportions
An internal storm of the century.

Platelets, blood cells, white and red
Each and all, infected and carrying the sickness
Deeper still, higher and lower
From brain to toe, every inch and cell of your being.

It is contagious, in the air, in your food
Byway of the plasma and saliva
A kiss can start it all
A kiss can be the cure.