Into a quart jar
place two cups water
taken from a ditch
beside the pasture
where the cattle once grazed.
If you do not live near a pasture
water from any drainage ditch
or from an urban creek
may be substituted.

Add one cup water
from the toilet bowl
where you rinsed the baby's diaper
when she was sick.
Be sure you do not
flush the toilet first.

Ask your husband
to urinate into the jar.
Only a little is needed.

When your neighbor washes his car
scoop up some of the run-off.
Add half a cup to the jar.

Put in a tablespoon or more
of fine dirt.
Screw down the lid.
Shake well.

Although the cholera
and typhoid bacilli
will probably be lacking --
and the amoebae --
following this recipe carefully
will result
in a reasonable facsimile
of the solution drunk
every day
by millions of people in Iraq
whose sewage treatment plants
and water purification systems
were bombed to smithereens in 1991
and cannot be rebuilt
under the conditions of siege
referred to as
"sanctions"
and maintained by military blockade
principally by the United States of America.

You might take your jar
to your congressperson or senator.
Ask that person
to keep it on the table
where he or she sits
in the halls of Congress
until the water runs clean
from every tap in Iraq
and no baby
dies of dysentery.
 

(c) 2000 Carolyn S. Scarr

Copyright by Carolyn S. Scarr, Berkeley, California, USA, 1999. Permission is

granted to post this text on non-commercial internet sites, provided it
remains intact and the copyright note is displayed. To publish this text in
printed and/or other forms please contact the author at epicalc@aol.com.