Saturated Contamination

Within seven measly days, I was named and created to sustain life of many kinds. On the

surface I may look inviting, but there are depths to my madness and undiscovered life below my

exterior. I was once just a thought then all of a sudden, I came in waves. I’ve always thought of

myself in a cleansing way. For settlers who traveled from one dry land to another, I brought forth

new opportunities for life to begin and end but lately I’ve felt gloomy. Polluted with the things

that no longer suit my suitors, an illegal escape for chemicals and unwanted substances that spill

over and sink onto my pit. The gloom has spread over time, and I have had many admirers come

to clean me up, but the gloom never leaves, only spreads itself thin among my brothers and

sisters.

Contamination originated in ancient times when habitants would bathe, wash, drink and

relieve themselves in my vicinities. Still to this day, little has changed. It has only evolved in a

more secretive and corrupt way. This overall falsification ultimately jeopardized the health of

humans and the environment. Large consumers rippled my existent like a knife to the back using

my freshwater for their own selfish needs, caring little about what the future could bring. Rain

summoned the toxins and carried fertilizers, pesticides and animal waste from farms and

livestock to my waterways contaminating my rivers and streams, making me feel soiled and

1unpleasant. Green masses of growth scale my surface and created a soup of infection causing

harm to all who retrieved their source of H2O from me. Flowing through their bodies, families

are sickened by disease and crisis as my water contributed to harmful pathogens that left them on

their deathbed.

I observed the edge, closely monitoring the mindless factories that polluted my expanses

illegally, putting low-income families at risk and blaming me for the poor quality. I’ve been

treated for waste, almost 34 billion gallons a day, but still I am only used water that can contain

chemicals, oils, debris or grease carried to me by the storms or rain. This can make it difficult to

deal with the pain. There have been changes to my treatment and bills have been signed, but tell

me how, tell me when, tell me why. All this contamination comes at a cost, not just to my

surface, but to the ground and the ocean. It bundled us all into one and caused a commotion.

Nations near and far can be heard and overworked as systems are overwhelmed by the amount of

waste contaminated in water. Each year, I release more than 850 billion gallons of water wasted

and untreated. I’m ultimately discharged and let go without another solution. I wonder if I’m sick

or not, there must be another conclusion.

Even the wind cursed at me as it carried debris across the sea, deep into the oceans where

only my marine life can see, causing curiosity that eventually kills them off. Plastic in our food,

everything comes at a cost. Although I look to be big and strong, I am saturated and absorb much

of man’s carbon emission making it difficult to look like anything but beautiful at all. I’ve killed

more people than a war ever could, contaminating their drinking water, their bath water, anything

but good. Yet little change has come, and my depth cannot be contained.

I feel no longer worthy of drinking for my seafloor has been stained. Farms, towns and

factories are really the ones to blame. Such careless sources that carry their toxic substances from

2one body of water to another, mixing it and dissolving it without shame. I have to admit that

even though I can carry you under, I am quite vulnerable absorbing what you need because that

is the liquid part of me. I am easy to pollute, but difficult to cleanse. Costing millions if not

billions to try to amend the hurt that has already been done from chemical overdoses. Each year,

parts of me go untreated leading to a release of waste for the waterways. Overflowing into my

streams, rivers, lakes, oceans and seas. Improper disposal or accidental leaks lead to a lifetime of

reproductions, making it difficult to dispose of the radioactive waste that seeps into my cracks

for not days, not weeks, but thousands of years.

Far too many years have gone by and to my understanding, nothing more will be done. If

the waste isn’t from the mere human littering into my canals, it’s growing factories creating

islands of waste that float about. In time things were meant to change. That is what I thought

change was, a moment in time where we recognize our mistakes and try another solution to

diminish the harm already done. I must be simple minded or mindless in all sorts to believe

humans may care more about me since I am the source of almost everything. Sometimes I

wonder what they would do without me, if I just dissolved back into the sky. I’d carry handfuls

of my kind as quickly as I can before the humans invented something tricky to suck me down

again. Such a selfish kind human can be. Attempting to satisfy a thirst that they can never

achieve. Without me they’ll be like a fish left out of the sea. First, they’ll gasp for air, pretty

typical if you ask me. Then they flounder about wondering where the hell I’ll be. I hope I get a

good seat in the sky. I’ll be long gone before the world starts turning and chaotically slipping by.

One by one, they’ll buy all they can. I know the shelves will be bare as can be. Lines of thirsty

people with dry, cracked lips and dehydrated skin. They might even have yellow eyes the size of

the moon, but what will I care. I’ll be sitting pretty with some fluffy clouds to hold me close. I’m

3sure they’ll care for me, maybe even the most. They’ll carry me around until they get heavy and

tired. Then just maybe I’ll share my moisture with the ones below to damper all their worries. I’ll

wash away their sins and cast dark shadows above their heads. Maybe if I rain down harder,

they’ll appreciate the major resource I am. Water is essential, for that is who I am.