Cesspool in Eden: Smith and 9th Street

Professional Amateur

There photos represent my lazy-day weekends (mostly in Brooklyn)

Poison is bubbling
Beneath your dream home
Buried there years before
Kid runs in crying
From playing in the garden
"Mommy, I burned my hands!"
"What's making our eyes so itchy?"
"Don't rub 'em—they'll swell up."

We built your tacky houses
On landfill soil
To cover up a gift
We left you years before
Of toxic chemicals
And leaking gas
Just dig a little while,
You'll find our acid baths

Cesspools
In Eden
Oozing away…

Ground water's poisoned
Air stings like hell
The lines for doctors grow long
Over martinis
The company laughs
"We don't owe you one damn thing."
But what about all these fainting spells?
How'd you like a lick
From my open sores

Why are our babies stillborn?

A storage tank's leaking
It's about to explode
Why evacuate
When you can watch the fun
Nothing happens here
Get out the lawn chairs
We'll drink pink lemonade
And watch Martinez burn

The land we sold you
Is right atop our acid pits
We fill them by the truckload
In the dead of night
There's thousands more toxic
Tips of the iceberg
We pay a little bribe
Or we just don't report them

And see what you get—
Cesspools
In Eden
No accident—
Just a little of our greed-fueled negligence

So you've found the proof why
Your cancer rate's shot up
But whatcha gonna do
When we've got all the cards

Times Beach, Rocky Flats,
Love Canal & Bhopal
Merry Christmas, hostages
From the folks who care

–Jello biafra

Cesspool in Eden

Tuesday, May 5

Smith and 9th Street

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