Water Treatment Plant

in hell, talents are bittersweet. actors will cling to the stage for air, writers will hang on to the written page like a rescue boat, talkers will talk all day and all night (to no one), and everybody’s popping pills… not to stay afloat, per se, but to drift idly upwards… like a pink balloon into the clouds… wait. what? in hell, there are so many chemicals in our system they show up in the water supply, surviving treatment plants and aquifers underground and above ground like little soldiers, holding on for dear life like the rest of us. but while most cities have a regulation dose of prescription pills in the water, the holy city has trace elements of: caffeine (yes), antibiotics (maybe), and… wait for it… flame retardant (yes, yes!). i knew there was a reason i was drinking so much water. (we have so much fire in our bellies water just doesn’t cut it.)
of course we’ve always prefered to mix essential elements with our water. when i was a kid it was lead, which, while useful, isn’t necessary to a child’s diet — not that we weren’t all infected with lead poisoning anyway (for our lovely old houses we’re willing to take a little lead; besides, it makes you smarter, or so the dumb people say). but it’s not a bad lesson to learn on day one: don’t buy the bullshit and don’t drink the water.