My Loss

Location

97045
United States
45° 20' 21.9732" N, 122° 32' 36.168" W

Gone were the people who cared for me,
The Yakuma, Nez Perce, Umatilla, Wanapum,
Gone were the people who built on me,
The people of White Bluffs, Hanford, Richland.

Gone were the animals who ran my ground,
The Deer, Rabbits, Bears, Elk,
Gone were the Birds that flew in the sky,
The Hawk, Raven, Sparrow.

Gone were the Fish who swam in my rivers,
The Salmon and the Steelhead,
Gone all gone,
All the pureness of the land gone.

Taken by the impure,
Taken by the ungodly evil,
Taken by the Nukes,
Taken by Fat Man and his friends.

Gone were the good days,
Days where I didn’t have to worry about killing my people,
Days where I didn’t have to worry about poisoning my people,
Days where I was no danger to life.

The tears I cry for those lost day are contaminated,
Contaminated with a sickness that spreads,
Spilling into the river system,
Contamination hurting everything around me.

Radioactive sludge spreading, contaminating,
Lives destroyed, sick and dying,
All of them spreading a sickness that was not their fault,
Manhattan Project, Green Run a process that is the beginning of an end.

Dirty and dangerous,
I need to be cleansed,
Wiped clean of the disease that inhabits my body,
Bring back the pureness that was once natural.

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