Billy shows us his arm, burned by the sun
where pesticides sensitized his skin
those years of his childhood, playing
in Delta cotton fields. A charred,
hand-sized lozenge marks the tender crease
inside his elbow. Alex holds up her chart
that shows the sickness and death
in her mother’s family, from cancer
in Cancer Alley. She has made red circles
for “fought,” green crosses for “died,”
she has put stars around her name,
my pretty dark-haired student.
They come to class, my sixteen freshmen,
and no matter what their topics,
they all say, “I never knew this…”
Fords and Chevies that will barely crank
one more time are parked in the reeds
and slick red mud. Early evening sun
pours down on the cypresses and sweetgum,
the Tallahtachie swamp at the edge
of Marshall County. Turtles poke their heads up.
Cottonmouths zipper through black water
or stretch out long and bask on the abandoned
railroad bridge. Men and women of all ages
beguile the hours after work,
the idle hours, with soft talk or silence,
with bamboo poles and battered coolers.
They could use the food.
They fish for buffalo, catfish, bass,
despite the fish advisories, the waters laced with mercury.
This poem first appeared in Blue Window (Archer Books, 2003).
—
Ann Fisher-Wirth’s seventh book of poetry is Paradise Is Jagged. With Laura-Gray Street she coedited Attached to the Living World: A New Ecopoetry Anthology (forthcoming 2025). A senior fellow of the Black Earth Institute, she’s had Fulbrights to Switzerland and Sweden, and residencies at Djerassi, Hedgebrook, Storyknife, and elsewhere. She received the 2023 Governor’s Award for Excellence in Poetry from the Mississippi Arts Commission. Her current book project is Into the Chalice of Your Thoughts.
