Industrial Accidents: Remembering Bhopal
on the Acquisition of Union Carbide by Dow Chemical
Mistryel Walker

At the gate, morning traffic stalls, stretches

miles, entry takes
hours, guards check
every ID, a safety precaution, no press allowed.

India? No! Corporate Headquarters, USA

and on this day, every voice-mail indicator
light is dollar green with a special message from the president
his best drone, running on, and
after 26 years contented labor,
thousands of dental-planned teeth suddenly clench and grind
and one dull mantra numbs every mind in the building:

"My god, I’m losing my job"

Goodbye sheltered parking garage
Goodbye lifetime of networked collegial relations
Goodbye gleaming cafeteria of four-star entrees and endless variety,

pleasant seating along side fountains under indoor trees,
arching skylights vaulting over Italian tile floors.

So long on-site conveniences: company store, handy ATM, hair

salon, tailoring shop, travel agency, pharmacy, health club:
lockers, showers, measured-mile exercise track winding
through dappled woods with white-tailed deer,
flocks of wild turkey, the relaxing scent of pine -
all only two minutes walk from any desk.

"It's terrible." "I can't believe it." Blank stares. Silence.

Generous early retirements, severance pay,
retraining programs, counseling.

"It's terrible." "I can't believe it." Blank stares. Silence.

Hasty evacuations, thousands of burials, thousands of disabling injuries,blindness, inability to breath, move, think, contamination, poverty, legal strategies,maneuvers, settlement cost 48 cents a share, divvied over decades by lawyers and Indian bureaucrats. Build hospital in return for a buyout by nationals, avoiding future liability. Change the name. Get extradition requests thrown out. Get pollution cleanup suit thrown out.

Hope memory fades.
Hope for silence.

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