growing up in farm country
lower mid-michigan
lyme disease
was talked
about on tv
or newspapers
as a natural
tho unfortunate condition
passed on naturally
from ticks
any + all ticks
took decades
to find out Lyme, Connecticut
was a small town
across the water from Plum Island
federal bioweapons lab
run by one of the nazis
invited over after WWII
by the cia
who thought ticks were
the best way to infect
an enemy population
like say north korea
but a disease
broke out in Lyme
bad enough
to be named for it
yet w/o much outrage
even at the time
except locally
but who cares about locals
not the last time
mistakes or experiments
on us
would be glossed over—
most recently
when a whole train
of dangerous chemicals
derailed + spilled
in East Palestine Ohio
rather than clean it up
local company owner
just had his workers set it on fire
creating a chemical mushroom
cloud poisoning
the Ohio River
w/ no consequence
or support
from the former (?) spook
of a Secretary of Transportation
or ten years ago now maybe
when a governor-appointed city manager
switched Flint Michigan/s water source
to old pipes
poisoning people with lead
still to this day
and the president finally
came to town
pretended to drink the water
made fun of the locals
but who cares about locals—
those last two disasters
didn’t involve nazis
tho they might as well
have
-- Born in Puerto Rico, John Yohe has worked as a wildland firefighter, wilderness ranger and fire lookout. Best of the Net nominee x2. Notable Essay List for Best American Essays 2021, 2022 and 2023. @thejohnyohe www.johnyohe.weebly.com