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This is the Passaic River. This is My Backyard. #njpoet
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This flood water is beyond toxic, the local fluff jock mused in a tone more properly used to announce a controversial new energy drink: Beyond Toxic!
She was on the phone from the front line, I presumed from the background noise, but could have easily read the official bulletin from two sound booths over.
Please remember the dead animals, pesticides, oil, garbage, raw sewage, and unspeakable other things in those flood waters.
The two radio voices exchanged some icky noises before returning to the point.
Stay away from the water! And if the water touches your skin, wash immediately with clean, hot, soapy water. Then, cover the exposed area with Bacitracin ointment to prevent infection.
The narrative abruptly transitioned to reports of people being swept away by ankle deep water.
You may think you can just walk across it, an official told me, but the water is raging at 40 mph! And these three kids were swept down the river and pulled under! Luckily, they managed to grab hold of a dirt mound [a dirt mound?] Yes! They grabbed hold of a dirt mound and crawled to safety!
My first thought: that’s a lot of Bacitracin ointment.
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Do you know what they’ve been saying on the radio?
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They’ve been saying that the flood waters are receding—hurray—and leaving behind a toxic sludge that, according to the local fluff caster, makes a squishy sound when you step in it. Listen. You can hear it. But as she reminds me, I should not mimic her sludge fun. No! No! I should neither step in, nor touch, the squishy toxic flood sludge. And if I do, and I have an open wound—it happens—and the toxic New Jersey flood sludge gets in my open wound—ugh—I should get a tetanus shot as soon as possible! Kay?! Kay!
A tetanus shot…to spare me a toxic New Jersey flood sludge death: this planet is filthy.
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Sang Lee is Dead: memoirs in fragments
by Charles Bivona
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Poetry & Poetics w/ Charles Bivona
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The Mind of a Child is Where the Revolution Begins
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Lake Hiawatha Floods My Neighborhood: Parsippany, New Jersey
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YouTube Uploaded by designandshutter on Aug 30, 2011
And my ass is currently sitting at point A on the map below—a 10 minute car ride from Lake Hiawatha. The end of my street is underwater from the separate river surge that left my small cross street—at the very bottom of the map—under four feet of water.
New Road, just behind me on the map, is underwater. That little patch of blue, just behind New Road on the map, consumed the whole area. Route 46 and North Beverwyck Rd, highlighted in purple, are underwater. The green exit markers—45, 47A, 43, 47B, and 47—are, the last I heard, all underwater. I’ve heard reports that the Parsippany Hilton—located near those exit markers—is submerged up to the second floor. Vail Road and Edwards Road—in the center of the map—are underwater, along with the shopping center in that area. The Shop Rite, where I buy most of my groceries, is underwater.
The flooding, quite literally, just missed me. My apartment complex is called Rutgers Village, but neighbors tell me the Parsippany Police have been calling us Rutger Island.
On the positive, my community has been coming together. There was a block party near one of the barriers a few days ago. Everyone was cooking food, drinking, and feeling lucky. I’ve met several neighbors, and the mood has been almost celebratory mixed with a fair share of awe in the face of nature. But I can’t help wondering: What if Irene hadn’t slowed down? And what if the next storm is just a little bit worse?
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All Roads to and from my Apartment are Underwater
Music From an East Coast Earthquake: Learn to Swim
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The geography is wrong,
but the sentiment is spot on,
wouldn’t you say?
Don’t just call it negative. Try to read between the lines.
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