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Abashed Poem #4: Urine Song

Urine Song 

A detestable substance comes from your body,

Once excreted you no longer own it,

Some say you never owned what was inside you,

Your body inside you is not you,

For what comes out you cannot be responsible.

Men stand on the streets in brown robes and wave placards.

Inside small brick palaces women save lives.

Urine's a ward of the state.

Parts of you, you don't know which ones, are shameful.



This is how we mark our territory, with evaporating water,

With words that leave traces of potassium, chloride and sodium.

With chemicals only wolves' noses would touch.

Our system filters undesirables out.

Its kidneys remove: salt, sugar, substance,

It reabsorbs harmless ions back into its blood.

Water fills bladders with shame.

It rains a fetish of golden excess.

Drink with disgust, you don't know but you'd want, your own water.



There's a man dehydrated in the desert,

His children carry his desiccated body,

Their mother walks beside them begging for water,

No one gives aid; nitrogen and phosphorus could feed deserts.

The waste product must no longer be wasted.

We are all men dying of thirst. We are all Earth's astronauts.

We all must all drop our pants, open our softest parts to rain down,

Make gardens, an oasis, of discarded cells.

Fear your rosy beeturia until, don't you remember? — you ate beets.



Excess proteins are suggestive of illness.

The turbid clouds of the developed world,

We waste when others are wasting,

We live bathed in blood, the hematuria of a beaten man.

Bacteria feed on urine in microbial fuel cells.

They power phones so we can talk to each other.

Take this to Africa's refugee camps and Europe's music festivals.

Take this to Europe's refugee camps and Africa's music festivals.

Either way you, can you see yourself? — a starving dancer beating drums.



Urine was once used to whiten teeth,

Gauge a man's health by its many colors,

Red, orange, green, yellow, blue, purple,

Multicolored, soaked cedar chip, ammonia-laden times,

Isn't it time to freshen Earth's cage? Do you think it funny?

Aged hormones, dead blood cells, proteins, and minerals,

A mix of toxins, salts, urea, excess water,

Mostly, you and the Earth, are wasted water.

Your words, a sustainable power source. You? — Too good to waste.

 Why Your Urine Is Too Good to Waste, Yes! Magazine
Pee power as researchers turn urine into a sustainable power source for powering electronic devices, University of Bath

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