[ Mississippi poet Philip C. Kolin reminds us of the next imminent
global disaster—bad water—and in some places it’s already here.
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

POISONED WATER  
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Philip C. Kolin

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_ Mississippi poet Philip C. Kolin reminds us of the next imminent
global disaster—bad water—and in some places it’s already here.
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Poisoned Water

By Philip C. Kolin

Water worldwide is dying of pollution.

A river once used as a kitchen is now a toilet.

A stream that was a playground is a morgue.

Mothers in the Congo walk twelve miles

to bring back a brimming bucket of

uncertified water, and the trip back is double

that distance. That distance is an inferno

of gnawing air—mosquitoes, fleas, leeches

biting every step.

Dirty water abounds in the Great Lake State.

The rusty-throated children of Flint, MI

have to chew their words, picking toxic

particles out of their mouths after drinking

from the Flint River. All because some portly

bureaucrat forget to get the lead out but now

reclines in infamy, his _Brit__a_ working nicely.

Foul water from ancient pumps forced

Jackson, MS to be on bottled water support.

A resident remarked that if the water did not

kill you, the chemicals in the hard plastic would.

Our DNA is being flushed away by

burgeoning industrial pollutants.

Sadly, like other countries, America's

arteries have become blighted rivers.

Philip C. Kolin is the Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus and

Editor Emeritus of the _Southern Quarterly_ at the Univ. of Southern
Mississippi.

His most recent book of poems is _Mapping Trauma: Poems about Black_

_History_ (Chicago: Third World Press, 2023).

* Poetry
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* Environmental Catastrophe
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