Dirty Water

‘Dirty’ Water

Tony Jolley 04/09/2022    

Jackson, Mississippi.

180,000 people

Blighted and benighted

By the giver and sustainer of life:

Water.

We’re all used to

Periods of drought

And lack of water;

But what about

Floods where excess of it

Means there is nothing to drink

Or nothing one dare drink:

The system’s shot.

IF residents are ‘lucky’ enough

To have a working tap,

The water’s rust or dirt brown:

Fit only for flushing,

Or, for the foolhardy,

For showering mouth firmly shut.

Drink only bottled

Is the mantra;

Blame the name of the game:

The water system overhaul

Delayed and deferred over decades.

General consensus is that places

Like Jackson and Flint

Have been consistently, overlooked,

By-passed, back-burnered and left behind

Because of ‘environmental racism’:

Priority, clean water budgets

Haven’t gone primarily to the poor,

To Non-WASP, basically Black

Or Native American towns.

It’s definitely a distressing case

Of ‘dirty water’ …

Literally,

Metaphorically

And politically.

.