Even if I see and don’t see the river’s writhing
the fish daphnia algae the water the water
the swelling of ritalin warfarin methotrexate
Even if I bend or don’t bend to the flow ingest
bitter tasting wonders as do aquatic insects riparian spiders
soaked in memantine codeine fluconazole mianserin
Even if the nerve system of antidotes flushes me with tics
‘Platypuses feed on the insect larvae that live on the creek bed’
aggression numbness memory loss unwanted rules of the algorithm
Past the old flux of apoplexy breakbone dropsy grief
grippe horrors jaw-faln lethargy lockjaw nostalgia
palsy quinsy rickets scurvy spleen
Even if I know it’s too much and not enough ‘with ageing infrastructure
there’s some leakage’ with my own sweet body is all I offer
baptismal slough of perfume cologne skin lotion sunscreen
Even if the nerve system of doses will cure my blurred vision
steroids move from cows to waterways through banks
and sediments tiredness aches anaemia unusual bruising
Even if my nerve system splits from its diminishing returns
Silent and hardened destroyed duplicitous and dumb
I’m not quite lost though I may not speak up
In that plagued flux dying still navigates living
welcome stone-fly larvae leafy twig-rush all you tiddlers
everything as part of things nothing to rule earth but little ones
Note:
Quotes from ‘Drugs in Our Waterways, the Bugs and Beyond’ by Bob Wong and Erinn Richmond. https://lens.monash.edu/2018/11/06/1364035/pharmaceuticals-in-our-waterways
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