A Poem by I Wanted to be A Father
Thank you, Monsanto, Dow Chemical, the rest of you
terrorists who use the we-were-just-following-orders
to order the demise of my children–their DNA invalid,
their genes degraded–born dead or near death–
I do not know where to begin or how or even if…
Agent Orange storms changed my insides
and the insides of the children I can never know.
Roundup sent me into convulsions, serious illness,
rashed and scarred by chemical residue in the fields.
Herbicides accomplished nothing over the long haul
except injury to my person, my seed, my future.
Thank you, Monsanto, Dow Chemical, the rest of you
terrorists who use greed and the moment to take away–
Where is my legacy? In a bottle for study? An autopsy?
The classrooms for the disfigured and mentally damaged?
I did not know where to begin or how or even if…
But I do now: Your greeting to the world is simple–
We do not need fathers because money is more important.
We do not need children because the present is everything.
Father’s Day is Monsanto and Dow Chemical’s celebration of extinction.