“nonimmune pregnant women are
disproportionately affected by the disease”
—Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett's Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases
Maybe the woman on the field team
was the one to figure it out.
The immune changes
of pregnancy are not to blame.
Nor does the victim’s gravid body
make her a more luscious mosquito meal.
It is only her bladder,
forced to share space
with a trying temporary tenant.
She pushes aside the sheer nets
shrouding her bed,
sways slowly outside,
toes dig in the warm earth,
squats precariously
for a sweet release,
as a proboscis so silently
pierces her soft flesh.