Inuit people of the Arctic hunt
And fish much as the polar bear,
And this lets them bear the brunt
Of brutal nature on a winter tear.

Pristine ice for miles and miles,
White expanse boggles the mind,
No industrial output defiles,
No chemical agribiz we find.

Yet, the world, in this arctic orb,
Has it’s greatest chemical dump.
Animals up the food chain absorb
Ocean currents, toxicities pump.

Water, air deliver poison goo,
Arctic ocean, low temps archive.
Mistakes past and present too,
Food chains up, Inuit derive.

Mother’s milk is wonderful gift,
Starts baby with immunity boost,
Hormones and super nutrient lift,
With beneficial bacteria infused.

Yet milk of human kindness —
Can’t be — when poison laced.
2002 test of toxicity mess
Greenland’s babies faced:

Some 20 to 50 times as much
As U.S. and European urbanites
From PCBs, mercury, and such.
Other tests, same insights.

Qaanaaq mothers mercury record set —
Twelve times higher than threshold
For neurological fetus damage, yet,
Never left hunting leasehold.

But exposure to contaminated food
Is not limited to arctic fish and whale.
World peoples who find seafood good,
Given toxicity test, quite often fail.

698,000 U.S. moms each year,
Having one new baby in every six —
Has mercury level higher, we fear,
Than Federal safety guidelines fix.

So when mothers of crystal white snow
Feed black-eyed brown babies from breast,
And poison the next generation, we know
Earth is sick — the snow canaries attest.

The basis for this poem is from an article “Dozens of
Words for Snow, None for Pollution,” by Marla Cone in the November, 2005 issue of Ode Magazine.

© 2005 R. Leland Waldrip