Valley Girl (A Poem for Pia)
Rent from DeepDyve- Valley Girl (A Poem for Pia)
Montessori, Ntozake, a Ph.D. aint gonna save your life. It’s the Chemical Valley girl, it’s got us all crazy.
Got us lookin to our roots, tangling and twisting all that good hair. Got us liven to exist in third world United States, somewhere in the middle East, West “by God” gettn r’ dun.
Cause we aint got no choice, no time to wait for the next industry and damn, didn’t we get degrees? Coal miner’s daughter is now chemical-plant step kid and Dear Mamma’s getting divorced, again. Pharmaceutical pesticide love child—downsized without child support.
Gone are the brand new cars and money to spend on hotel rooms and Nike shoes. Cross the county it’s true. Stability’s leaving townlike rolling coal and all we can do is shelter in place. Got us like crawdads in a barrel, just try to get out. Got us standing up and shoutn overtime overtime can’t be late, trying to catch our breath
Cause just today, I caught a three-eyed carp. Pollution vs. The Solution, that’s the way DuPont du.
A mountain, a river, a road, some rail—just close your eyes, click your heels three times and pretend that they city lights.
Montessori, Ntozake, a Ph.D. aint gona save your life. It’s the Chemical Valley girl It’s got us ALL crazy. [End Page 40]
Crystal Good is the mother of three sons. She lives in Charleston, West Virginia, near her hometown of St. Albans. She is a proud member of the Affrilachian Poets and “works for justice for all” as the Assistant Director of the West Virginia non-profit, Covenant House.
