Wood County poultry barns,
Ohio mega farms, Indiana hog pens,
a Mapquest scan of hot
blue dots upriver
across the state line
to Ft. Wayne and beyond.
Froth and runoff pumped
from CAFO tanks
through treatment troughs,
then piped to the sink.
Chemical soup, chicken poop,
cow plop, muck, faint flecks.
Iridescent striations, phosphorus,
zinc and merc lace
the white flesh of fish
Ohio’s pregnant moms
risk fetuses to taste.
Sludge from Toledo’s ship canal,
harbor dredge, ballast, dock drop,
the Maumee River dumps
it all in the Bay.
From cooling towers west and east
nuclear vapors lift and drift.
Steam clouds over Monroe condense.
Mist blankets bunkers across Ft. Perry,
intoxicating the watery mix of Roundup,
nuclear juice, agribusiness, industry,
treatment plant chemistry and green algae.
Water intake from a ghostly lake,
concrete pillbox in the haze,
ditch to tap, taste, each drink waste.
