City of Bones
the worst thing we've ever seen
Robert Bowcock, environmental investigator and colleague of Erin Brockovich
(Speaking of Leadwood, Missouri)
I.
The bones
broken
bleached
cages
just down
the street
the new
weeds grow
a strange
green
The solution
to cover lead
with more
lead from a town
not much
better off than we are
When that
didn't work they
sprayed it
down with sewage
It's safe,
they promised
and the
bones grew to dandelions
and we were
thankful
to find
femurs, ribs bent
to smiles,
bits of teeth
tumors
spreading into
the marrow
of our lives
The shit
brought in from the Livestock
Sale Barn,
the port-o-potty company
full of
hypodermic needles biting
and then
Well, and
then there was nothing
not even
the sound of our cancers
This is
what our fathers died for
we said
Part II
I said
The Company
left us
here where the
chat dumps loom
like
tombstones
Left us
like pigs without tits to suck
I said
The Company
decided
lead was no
longer viable
and left us
with it, an illness
I said
and illness
It doesn't
really matter anymore
what the
men in suits from safer cities
say I said
When they
got around to it
they hauled
in dirt with less lead
to cover
what we already had
and when
that didn't work
they
covered our town in
shit
literal
shit
Months
later we were still
picking out
bones and teeth
from the
dirt
In some
yards after the rain
had washed
it away
we were
left with piles of bones
cattle they said
it's safe
and the needles
an
unforeseeable side-effect
Our
grandfather's won't speak of it
won't utter
an ill word toward The Company
that fed
them
put shoes
on their children
gave them
something to do with their
backs and
hands
III
What I
really mean is this:
the lead runs deep
the dark waters
the tumored fish
the rough hands
run deep
Tommy killed himself
Bill killed himself
Buck killed himself
on and on
It's so
simple
our town is
small
there's no
money
IV
We live in
shit
We vote
Republican
We pound
our Bibles
Eat at
Macdonald's
drive big
trucks
We drink a
lot
we fight a
lot
we fuck a
lot
and pray a
lot for salvation
The lady
across the street
finally
took down her Jesus
is coming
soon sign
There's
glory in the blood
We were all
so busy
waiting on
Armageddon
we never
noticed
it was
already here.
--Daniel
Crocker
First
Published in Fried Chicken and Coffee
Daniel Crocker's work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Hobart, Big Muddy, New World Writing,
Stirring, Juked, The Chiron Review, The Mas Tequila Reviewand over 100 others. His books
include Like a Fish (full length) and The One Where I Ruin Your Childhood (e-chap with thousands of
downloads) both from Sundress Publications. Green Bean Press published several
of his books in the '90s and early 2000s. These include People Everyday and Other
Poems, Long Live the 2 of Spades, the novel The Cornstalk Man and the short story collection Do Not Look Directly Into Me. He has also published
several chapbooks through various presses. His newest full length collection of poetry, Shit House Rat, was published by Spartan Press
in September of 2017. Stubborn Mule Press will publish Leadwood: New and Selected
Poems—1998-2018 in October 2018. He was the first winner of the Gerald
Locklin Prize in poetry. He is the editor of The Cape Rock (Southeast Missouri State University) and the co-editor of Trailer Park Quarterly. He's also the host of the
podcast, Sanesplaining, about poetry, mental illness and nerd stuff. He is a bipolar,
bisexual Gemini living the cliché.
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