A Poem by Gloria Stevens

2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) is a common herbicide found in Agent Orange developed by Monsanto and Dow Chemical and used around the home and garden.

Here is how you grow rich:
plant 2,4-D everywhere
letting it seek skin and water,
soil and everything in reach
until every seed owned
is owned by you.

Did we not see what happened
fifty years ago, the legacy
still with us, the Agent Orange
children and the Agent Orange
grandchildren–Viet Nam?…

Here is how we grow poor:
plant 2,4-D everywhere,
let the chemical ravage
everything until there is nothing
and then you too feel its teeth,
the saliva in its jaws.