Mesothelioma

The Perth Amboy Asphalt Refinery
Unified Incident Command was there,
Assuaging all evacuees
As subpoenas and settlements would
Years later when they learned the word.

Watching Leviathan's cage melt down,
He now could see the beast it was
He helped to build as his brother did,
Cutting his teeth in steel-toed boots
Near catwalks where no field mouse lived

And heard the fire chaplain cry
"My God! It's like some outer bridge
To Dante's hellbent vestibule!"
By the channel black as crude
Dutchmen named the Arthur Kill.

Remembering those who perished,
Perth Amboy, New Jersey, 1949