The Introduction, or What this is

The Oil Spill has been getting to me lately. It’s not just the spill itself, or its existence, or the other bullshit surrounding it, so much as it is the disaster potential the spill has. I wanted to write about it from the first day I learned of it, but I couldn’t find the words to talk about it in the present, and I figured by the time I talked about it’s occurrence it would only be therapy.

So, I decided to write about the Oil Spill in the future. My intent is to give the oil spill’s potential impact a portrait. My intent is to give a reader a glimpse of what could be, so that it can be prevented. And in the process burn away the fears, cynicism, and so on that I’m feeling.

I’ll be writing a series of storytelling poems about the oil spill, set a few years into a future where the 2010 Hurricane Season and the Oil Spill collide, leading to a mass spill across Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. BP, unable to pay citizens for the damages, has been charged with leading the clean-up process for the disaster. They provide our water, food, and they contain and clean up cities and areas affected by the storm. In the midst of this, people are struggling to survive the fumes, the rot, and the inevitable problems that come with a disaster.

As our people usually do, there are some of those who stayed behind to guard their homes or couldn’t afford to go elsewhere. There are expats who’ve come to assist with the clean up, meteorologists trying to keep the clean up effort ahead of the coming hurricanes, and other characters that I want to portray with my words. I’m going to write this out until I burn out.

If this catches on, I hope other artists with a way for words or art will join in on this concept and create things around it. We have the same potential to save our homes as the oil spill does to destroy them. I’m gonna try to contribute something to saving home.

So. Here are the first two poems of the series. Excuse the title if it’s kinda corny, it’s apt to change.

Peace,

Dane