“Newark first became aware of elevated lead levels in 2017 after the city changed the water’s acidity, which may have made it more corrosive and caused lead from the pipes to enter the water supply. Two years later, lead levels reached a crisis point that kept about 15,000 households from drinking their tap water for more than a month.”
The Washington Post (October 3, 2019)
HEY, don’t drink the water, baby—
didn’t you see the news?
Pencil dust, chipped paint, shower steam, brushed teeth,
there are so many ways it's already in you.
While school kids are drinking through two water
passes before noon from Park to Avon Avenue.
Conspiring from Flint to Newark and everywhere in-
between, these pipes are irrigated heavy metal sinews.
I’m the first to wake up from sweat and see you in bed
wondering if this water has the same effect on you.
Later I’ll call the super’s number after the crack
of a pipe, trying to change our plumbing for you.
Where you’ll say I’m no handyman, even when you
know that I work with these hands for you. Like,
how in a heatwave I’ll climb 4 full flights and
still won’t drink from the sink for you.
Because I stood in line for a case of water or free filter and
heard some fast-talker tell another, “Son, I’ll tell you...
these charlatan pipes clean lead to the back of the head
in the quiet of a thirsty pass through.”
These days I cut t-shirts into coffee filters— to orthophosphate
my body I’ll make myself a distillery for you.
Contributor Notes
Dimitri Reyes is a Boricua multidisciplinary artist, content creator, and educator from Newark, New Jersey. He has been named one of The Best New Latinx Authors of 2023 by LatinoStories.com for his most recent book, Papi Pichón (Get Fresh Books, 2023) which was a finalist for the Omnidawn chapbook contest and the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. His other books include Every First and Fifteenth, the winner of the Digging Press 2020 Chapbook Award, and the poetry journal Shadow Work for Poets, now available on Amazon. Dimitri's work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net and his work has been featured in Poem-a-Day, The Rumpus, Letras Latinas, & Acentos among others. He was also an inaugural poetry fellow for the Poets & Writers Get The Word Out publishing incubator and a 2024 fellow with the NJ Arts Professional Learning Institute. Dimitri is also the Marketing & Communications Director at CavanKerry Press. Learn more about Dimitri by visiting his website at https://www.dimitrireyespoet.com/
