Poems of the Week

Uncool Ancestors

by Alex Steelsmith

“Every decade since the 19th century, the average American’s body temperature has declined
from 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit by 0.05 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s probably because we have better
living conditions now than in the past, which reduces inflammation, and therefore body temperature.”
Motherly

Heltery-sweltery
bodily temperature,
back when conditions of
living were quite

antediluvian
(pre-19th-century),
must have gone up to a
staggering heit.