Flint Michigan

I have been painted onto walls, mixed into gasoline, molded into pipes

I have offered myself over and over again as the best option-

Cheap and strong

Though I once took down the Roman Empire

You still fall for me

It’s 1897,

booming lead companies have molded me into millions of pipes across America

Every time this happens, I think it will be the last

But power-hungry empires never learn

Or maybe never care

“Just treat it,” rings through business meetings

So I do my job for a century

running gallon after gallon of water through me

whooshing, whooshing through my center

I hold up well, and I remain harmless

Because cities do their jobs, and they treat their water

But then Flint city officials get cheap, they get lazy

They run untreated water through me

From a river that has fueled fire instead of putting it out

“Regular, good, pure drinking water...right in our backyard!”

Your polluted water rushes through my center

And this time it takes pieces of me with it

I’m washing away

This time it’s me whooshing through.

I’ve taken over again

Raining on them in their showers

Filling their glasses, sliding down their throats

I make my way into their blood streams

Pretending to be as valuable as iron

Officials stand by and watch for five years

I’m a weapon in their mass murder- destroying minds, stealing futures

They let me

Because who would listen to the cries of this small, impoverished town?

Until someone finally does listen

“Exposed” by an out-of-state research team

So Michigan pretends to make an effort

But why would a state that abandoned its people

come through now?

Another five years pass,

My cold metal form still rushes water through it in the forgotten places of Flint

“no longer in a state of emergency,” ha!

I’m still here