Mercurochrome

When I was a kid, if I got a cut,
My mother would grab the glass vial
And slather a swath of no other stuff but
Mercurochrome; that was her style.

Inside of the bottle a thin tube of glass
Was for dipping and coating with goo.
Then you dabbed it on so that no germs would amass
And the medicine knew what to do.

Every household did stock it, like aspirin and Vicks
(VapoRub, used if we had a cold),
But the FDA sometimes gets wise and restricts
Certain products which stop being sold.

That’s the way things went down in Mercurochrome Land.
It’s been years since it’s legal to buy it;
Though its mercury content, we now understand,
Isn’t healthy, some still would deny it.

It’ surprising to me that what once was assumed
To be helpful can lose its cachet,
So perhaps with Purell use we all might be doomed
As our safeguards it withers away.