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"Polio! You Aren't Busted"

Creator: n/a
Date: September 1932
Publication: The Polio Chronicle
Source: Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation Archives


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Some one sent "Donny" a poem about the depression. She thought it good. So do we. We put it through the office transformer and it came out a little changed. We thank the unknown author and beg his pardon for the slight paraphrasing. If he has had polio, he will not mind, and if he has not, he ought to feel too lucky to care. Here it is! Read it!

2  

"I've had polio," you cry;
"I've lost everything, I'm done."
Well, what have you lost?
What did you have?
"I had a lot of muscles" you say;
"And could walk,
"And dance about;
"But now I have lost everything;
"I'm completely ruined;
"I'm done for."

3  

You're wrong --
You're not wiped out.
Some of your muscles are gone,
But you are not.
Those muscles were not you.
They were just part of you.
They were great to have,
But they had nothing to do
With the secret, essential you.
There's just as much of you left
As ever there was.
All that you really were,
You still are,
You still have.

4  

What were you really?
What did you really have?
You were a living spirit
With a mind and heart
Which possessed the power
To work and play,
Love and hate,
Dream and desire,
Scheme and fight;
And you had -- what?
Your own character,
With whatever courage and wisdom,
Honesty and decency
You had developed.

5  

You possessed YOURSELF,
And that was all you did possess.
Or ever can possess.
The other things were just trimmings,
Only your own character
Has meaning, or value, or power.
You still have yourself,
You are still you.
Your mind, your courage,
Your resolution to go on.
Think of all the others
Who have gone before
Without muscles or walking!
You wiped out? Boloney!
Stop the grouching,
Snap out of the wallowing,
Get going! Scram!

[END]