Something in the Water
- Something in the Water
"As much as she loved Waycross, she hated cancer more."
—Joshua Sharp, Atlanta Magazine
The collection tins ring passed around numb like communion to toss
dirty change into: fundraisers for the many afflicted
families after prayers run dry. The kids' faces are flyers glued
around steel cans sitting on store counters, nailed to light poles,
faces missing from class, from church. And it's the kids, the poor kids, or the old
folks, the poor ones, who've worked the yard, or live nearby. In the trailer
parks by the tracks, there's not a single family without cancer. Squatting gallon [End Page 89]
tumors with no preventative care; deep medical burdens that drain
the whole community, the list of sick toddlers rattle longer and
longer, fever-bright. Canals ooze from superfund clusters; blister folks
remember the Brunel Street canal catching on fire. Mast ships would dock
in the St. Marys for the black water once. Now people are scared to eat its fish.
Over steeped dark ditchwater tea where the runoff from the railyard seeped and crept. [End Page 90]
Jaycee Billington is from Folkston, Georgia and received her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her work appears in Plain China, the peacock's feet, Hotel Amerika, Bread and Assembly, West Trade Review, and The Oyez Review. She is the winner of a Wilson Award for excellence in writing.
