Remedial
For two years now, when I visit home, I watch truck beds
load / unload / load
this perfectly-normal-dirt.
Me: Toxic with what?
My mother: Elsewhere’s waste
I ask where the toxic dirt is coming from, and she says
I don’t know, probably New Jersey. It’s private
/ /property.
If the tree roots are already fibrous with zinc
then what’s to hold them accountable for a little more?
Palmerton’s mist of zinc-smelted air
settles snowflakes of jaded crust,
peeling then vanished like me.
When I return, I just watch Trump signs
blur a flipbook through the lawns.
A.C. turned up, blasting—
The man at the park is selling hats again.
/ /I don’t want to pay him attention,
drive faster behind the exhaust
of a Chevy
and hold my breath.
Breaching the valley, I imagine
the patches of green
are signs of growth,
replenished vegetation to soon cover up
the bark-chewed mountain.
As though this green will last, I watch them
spill fodder into a soil
that’s “mine” / / I dig my fingers
/ /yet can’t take root.
Down Forest Inn Road,
I hardly notice now the former primary
zinc smelting operation,
clanging factory.
Forget the 2,000 acres on Blue Mountain […]
defoliated […] contaminated
the rainwater […] into Aquashicola Creek.
Forget 850 people within one mile of the site.
And formally added to the list on September 8, 1983.
Currently overseeing the Remedial Investigation
and Feasibility Study.
From the way my neighbors
say: remember when— I know they’d reopen
the doors of the plant like a rusted scab if they could,
picking at things. Flags breaking the wind, fast.
/ /Sometimes I have to remind myself
I’m no different, slicing the sky open
as the sharp edge of my wiper
sprays particles into the ozone.
I sign petitions
write posts call through a phone’s
79-kilogram carbon emissions.
My blouse knit with synthetic fibers abused labor—
yet me : telling everyone what to do
/ /like I don’t remember my own face shoved
in that soil like I didn’t lie
in the Rubbermaid outside our trailer
knowing only bare mountains.
All day I could watch them load /
unload / load
before disappearing into the endless circuit
out of site, sight.
Yet, through skeletal trees,
there: the plant’s tall pipes,
staunch as pillars pitching up
this whole town’s sky.
Google Review
Composed of found Google reviews for Centralia
They covered the whole road in dirt mounds. It’s gone, waste of time… came all the way.
Where the buildings of this town used to stand is nothing – but small trees.
… Only thing that we could’ve enjoyed more was a swimming… hot day.
Somewhat quiet (distant highway noise), very sun-exposed (no shade)…
… I go here to be alone and blow off some steam.
… … They covered the whole road in dirt mounds… all the way.
… … Don’t forget the spray cans so you can leave your mark on graffiti highway!
Interesting place… fun for the family… …
… Only thing that we could’ve enjoyed… was very hot that day.
A real shame that the government seems to have turned their eye away…
… … Go in the middle of a weekday when it’s totally empty…
They covered the whole road in waste… all the way… …
… All the potential that can be salvaged from this still charming place…
If we don’t teach our kids about the mistakes of the past, they will be doomed to repeat…
… … Only thing that we could’ve enjoyed more was a swimming pool day…
Looks like a garbage dump… What a shame…
… … Town is now private property, owned by a coal company.
They covered the whole road in dirt mounds. It’s gone… came all the way…
Only thing that we could’ve enjoyed more was a swimming pool. It was very hot that day.
Ritual for Violation
Adapted from the EPA 2012 Progress Report, Index A
Chemicals in frackwater between years 2005 – 2011
Insert [ 1, 2, 3- Trichlorobenzene ; 1, 2, 4- Trichlorobenzene ; 1, 2, 4- Trimethylbenzene ; 1, 2- Propanediol ; 1, 3, 5- Trimethylbenzene ; 1, 4, Dioxane ; 2, 4- Dimethylphenol ; 2, 6- Dichlorophenol ; 2-Methylaphthalene ; 2-Methylphenol ; 2-Methylpropanoic acid ; 2-Methylpydridine ; 3-Methylbutanoic acid ; 3-Methylphenol ; 4-Methylphenol ; 7, 12-Dimethylbenz(a)anthracene ; Acetic acid ; Acetone ; Acetophenone ; Acrolein ; Acrylonitrile ; Aldrin ; Aluminum ; Ammonia ; Antimony ; Aroclor 1248 ; Arsenic ; Barium ; Benzene ; Benzo(a)pyrene ; Benzo(b)fluoranthene ; Benzo(g,h,i)perylene ; Benzo(k)fluoranthene ; Benzyl alcohol ; Beryllium ; beta- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6- Hexachlorocyclohexane ; Bis(2-chloroethyl) ether ; Boron ; Bromide (-1) ; Bromodichloromethane ; Bromoform ; Butanoic acid ; Butylbenzene ; Cadmium ; Caesium 137 ; Calcium ; Carbon dioxide ; Carbon disulfide ; Chloride ; Chlorine ; Chlorodibromomethane ; Chloroform ; Chloromethane ; Chromium ; Chromium (III) with insoluble salts ; Chromium (VI) ; Cobalt ; Copper ; Cumene ; Cyanide, free ; delta-Hexachlorocyclohexane ; Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate ; Dibenz(a,h)anthracene ; Dibutyl phthalate ; Dichloromethane ; Dichloromethane ; Dieldrin ; Diethyl phthalate ; Dioctyl phthalate ; Diphenylamine ; Endosulfan I ; Endosulfan II ; Endrin aldehyde ; Ethylbenzene ; Ethylene glycol ; Fluoranthene ; Fluorene ; Fluoride ; Formaldehyde ; Heptachlor ; Heptaclor epoxide ; Heptanoic acid ; Hexanoic acid ; Indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene ; Hydrogen fluoride ; Isopropanol ; Lead ; Lindane ; Lithium ; Magnesium ; Manganese ; Mercury ; Methanol ; Methyl ethyl ketone ; Molybdenum ; Naphthalene ; Nickel ; N-Nitrosodiphenylamine ; p, p’-DDE ; p-Cymene ; Pentanoic acid ; Phenanthrene ; Phenol ; Phorate ; Phosphorus ; Potassium ; Propionic acid ; Propoylbenzene ; Pyrene ; Pyridine ; Radium 226 ; Radium 226, 228 ; Radium 228 ; Safrole ; sec-Butylbenzene ; Selenium ; Silica ; Silicon (elemental) ; Silver ; Sodium ; Strontium ; Sulfate ; Sulfite ; Tetrachloroethylene ; Thallium and Compounds ; Tin ; Titanium ; Toluene ; Vanadium ; Xylenes ; Zinc ]
Benzene = [ Vapor hovering ; puddle ; waiting to ignite ]
Toluene = [ Cotton-candy rub ; your eyelids ; dissolved lacquers ; off dressers ; doors ]
Ethylbenzene = [ Sunoco ; 2 a.m. ; tapping your nails ; pump handle ; lighter ; greased ]
Hydrogen Fluoride = [ Dizzy stamp ; a spiraled bulb ]
Naphthalene = [ My grandmother’s mothballs ; white volatile ; snow ]
Sulfuric Acid = [ Burnt ; wood ; cleaner ; ooze ; a battery plum ]
Crystalline Silica = [ Grit ; soft between fingers ; grit ; itch ; soft between fingers ; itch ; between ]
Methanol = [ A car ; waiting to bleed ; occipital pressure ; paint gobbing ; the window ; blue ]
Formaldehyde = [ Formless balm ; raw ; leathered vellum ]
Lead = [ A drawn-out ; pipe-dripped ; rattling ; goodbye ]
Amanda Hodes
Amanda Hodes is a writer and new media artist. Winner of the 2024 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, her debut collection Into the Into of Earth Itself is out from Black Lawrence Press. Her poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Black Warrior Review, Denver Quarterly, [PANK], Pleiades, AMBIT, West Branch, Raleigh Review, Poetry Northwest, Interim Poetics, DIAGRAM, Academy of American Poets (online), Quarterly West, and elsewhere. As an artist, she is interested in sound installation as a route to an embodied, spatial poetics. Her new media work has been exhibited in venues such as the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum, Torpedo Factory, Abington Arts Center, Hirshhorn Sound Scene Festival, and Ammerman Center for Arts & Technology. She is an Assistant Professor of English at Augusta University, and she previously taught creative writing at Oberlin College and Virginia Tech.