The Innisfree Poetry Journal
www.innisfreepoetry.org

by JoAnne Growney


MITIGATION OF TOXINS

A stand of poplars is a self-assembling
solar-powered pump-and-treat
ground-water protection system.
Brake ferns filter arsenic from soil;
Indian mustard absorbs lead.
Sunflowers reduce strontium levels.

An uncommon man or singular woman
buffers the malice of others, keeps
the rest of us from tilting the world.

Phytostabilization,
phytoextraction,
rhizofiltration,

civilization.


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