Mother


We drain her veins; shoot her up with unknown cocktails.

We hide our poisons deep within. 

No one will know the truth.

Daily demands on mother earth.

She’s got nothing left to give.
* * *
Gas companies involved with fracking in Pennsylvania, the state that has served as my home for the past eight years, are trucking millions of gallons of wastewater to Ohio, the state I consider my true home.

How can we afford to ever consider water waste?


Fracking water, laced with hundreds unknown chemicals and brine, is pumped into injection wells deep below the surface of the water.  If these wells fail, the chemicals will pollute our waterways, seeping into local streams and rivers; eventually making it to lakes and oceans.

If the gas industry has its way, people getting sick from fracking water will not have the right to know precisely what is poisoning their bodies: That information is considered proprietary.

In his essays, Wes Jackson often writes of the environmental deficit under which we live.  He mentions that to begin to reverse this thing we’ve created, we all need to reduce our energy consumption by eighty percent.

I wonder which of us will be willing to do this.

And when we’ve squeezed the last of the natural gas from beneath our land; when the injection wells are full of unusable water, I wonder…

Where do we next turn?

 This was written in response to this week's Trifecta Writing Challenge.  We were to write a 33 word piece including as one of our words mother.

This was linked up with Yeah, Write.

Labels:

Writing in the Margins, Bursting at the Seams: Mother

Friday, May 11, 2012

Mother


We drain her veins; shoot her up with unknown cocktails.

We hide our poisons deep within. 

No one will know the truth.

Daily demands on mother earth.

She’s got nothing left to give.
* * *
Gas companies involved with fracking in Pennsylvania, the state that has served as my home for the past eight years, are trucking millions of gallons of wastewater to Ohio, the state I consider my true home.

How can we afford to ever consider water waste?


Fracking water, laced with hundreds unknown chemicals and brine, is pumped into injection wells deep below the surface of the water.  If these wells fail, the chemicals will pollute our waterways, seeping into local streams and rivers; eventually making it to lakes and oceans.

If the gas industry has its way, people getting sick from fracking water will not have the right to know precisely what is poisoning their bodies: That information is considered proprietary.

In his essays, Wes Jackson often writes of the environmental deficit under which we live.  He mentions that to begin to reverse this thing we’ve created, we all need to reduce our energy consumption by eighty percent.

I wonder which of us will be willing to do this.

And when we’ve squeezed the last of the natural gas from beneath our land; when the injection wells are full of unusable water, I wonder…

Where do we next turn?

 This was written in response to this week's Trifecta Writing Challenge.  We were to write a 33 word piece including as one of our words mother.

This was linked up with Yeah, Write.

Labels:

23 Comments:

At May 11, 2012 at 8:57 PM , Anonymous Leslicollins said...

"OHIO THE HEART OF IT ALL"

 
At May 11, 2012 at 11:05 PM , Anonymous Shawna said...

This is really good. The first and the last lines are my favorites.

 
At May 12, 2012 at 12:16 AM , Anonymous JannaTWrites said...

I didn't hear about fracking until a couple years ago. It is scary to me what we do to the earth.

I like your use of mother in this piece.

 
At May 12, 2012 at 6:07 AM , Anonymous Asproulla said...

So sad. Where, indeed, will we turn? Came from the heart -- I like that.

 
At May 12, 2012 at 7:48 AM , Anonymous Mel said...

Powerful imagery. Nicely done.

 
At May 12, 2012 at 12:26 PM , Anonymous Tara R. said...

Fracking in Pennsylvania, off-shore drilling in the Florida Gulf... it all scares me.

 
At May 12, 2012 at 5:16 PM , Anonymous Sandra said...

Nice use of the prompt -- Mother Earth. Fracking is indeed poison to our earth. People can be so shortsighted; this earth is only home for our children and theirs...

 
At May 12, 2012 at 10:58 PM , Anonymous Olddognewtits said...

A unique take among all the others. Nice.

 
At May 13, 2012 at 7:00 PM , Anonymous Jester Queen said...

I hate pollution. I hate that I contribute to it. I acknowledge my hypocrisy here, in that I hate it, but don't act, even though I should. I could give the litany of reasons and excuses, but it would sound disingenuous. In brief, I'll go with the statement you started with. Fracking gas companies. I think I may have abridged.

 
At May 14, 2012 at 3:17 AM , Anonymous Trifecta said...

I like how you approached this from a different angle to most of the others I've read. Your last line is powerful. Thanks so much for linking up.

 
At May 15, 2012 at 7:43 AM , Anonymous Mamamash said...

Your response to the prompt is chilling. I remember watching Terminator 2 as a kid and listening to Linda Hamilton's speech about how we were going to destroy ourselves. We're doing it, just slower than we thought.

 
At May 15, 2012 at 11:30 AM , Anonymous DelilahLove said...

Very powerful writing, as always! Nicely done.

 
At May 15, 2012 at 7:02 PM , Anonymous Mayor Gia said...

Ugh, fracking is so bad. :( Poor earth..

 
At May 15, 2012 at 7:33 PM , Anonymous Dawn said...

Your words leave me speechless. Very well written, and it's such a scary but important topic.
Thank you for sharing.

 
At May 15, 2012 at 7:35 PM , Anonymous katieross83 said...

Unique take on the prompt; I'm liking the direction you took it in. A very important message here. :)

 
At May 16, 2012 at 4:44 AM , Anonymous Michelle Longo said...

The state of our planet is a very, very scary thing. Great post!

 
At May 16, 2012 at 9:46 AM , Anonymous Kathy Kramer said...

They're doing the same thing up in North Dakota with the oil boom up there. The boom may head south into South Dakota, where I live. They say that the land here is such that fracking won't be necessary, but I'll believe that when I see it. Good post.

 
At May 16, 2012 at 11:05 AM , Anonymous SusannaBartee said...

Great poetic response to the prompt. Loved it!

 
At May 16, 2012 at 2:37 PM , Anonymous Vanessa said...

I don't think we're doing much better in Canada on the environmental front. In Canada our biggest issue is "Green Energy". Our government is trying to push through bills which will allow them to erect turbines without an environmental study - even in migratory routes, and even though more energy is consumed in the manufacture of a turbine than that turbine can produce in it's entire lifespan.

 
At May 16, 2012 at 4:28 PM , Anonymous Ladygoogoogaga2011 said...

Scary stuff.....

 
At May 16, 2012 at 5:44 PM , Anonymous kdwald said...

What gets me is that the fracking is not the only way to extract the gas. It's just the cheapest and quickest. I was just talking with two fellow town residents about the choice to put astroturf on the public park's field. Any games have to be cancelled when it gets too hot because the children can get burned. WHAT? And the ground water is affected by the leeching of the plastics into the dirt. WHAT? This is worth having pretty green fields?

I think we humans have fully crossed into the insanity of The Price is Right Couch Potato culture.

 
At May 17, 2012 at 11:00 AM , Anonymous Julia said...

Very scary topic. Lovely and poetic way for you to address it here.

 
At May 17, 2012 at 2:46 PM , Anonymous Stephanie Brennan said...

Great response to the prompt. What will it take, I wonder, before local, state, and federal governments wise up to the damage being done. No one cares anymore about anything but money. Sad. Love your posts as they make us think.

 

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