JEREMIAD: "LITURGIES OF CONTAMINATION" BY J.M. SAVANNAH

 

Like dew at sunrise

they vanished

Like snow, they thawed,

runoff carving famine into soil

I used to dance in muddy puddles,

A grinning,witless goat

Hooves clapping at frowning skies

saluting a retreating rainbow

I used to dance in muddy puddles 

until tadpoles and shrimps alike,

Schooled by the chemistry of rot streams,

Mastered the shape of hunger

There was a season in time,

when Amens rippled echoes

gagging dim,creepy chapels

In vigils of holy tantrums

The water thickened quietly

Promises fermented,

Slimy rivulets of effluent

rewrote the language of play

Tadpoles learned distortion early,

shrimps grew fluent in poison,

even innocence developed gills

for surviving toxic  filth

Still, we sang,

Still, we prayed

Calling contamination “trial,”

calling decay “God’s timing"

Now the puddles are mirrors,

and nothing dances,

We kneel to what we poured,

drink what we termed holy,

and marvel at silent salvation.

© J.M. SAVANNAH INKS

-Zimbabwe

"Liturgies of Contamination" is a free-verse, eco-critical lament that fuses environmental devastation with religious imagery to critique how pollution has been normalized and even sanctified. The poem opens with fleeting natural phenomena—dew and snow—evaporating and melting, leaving “famine into soil,” signaling loss and barrenness. The speaker’s childhood joy, “dance in muddy puddles” as a “grinning, witless goat,” is a nostalgic contrast to the later, grim reality where “tadpoles and shrimps” are “schooled by the chemistry of rot streams,” learning to survive in toxic, poisoned water. Religious language—“Amens,” “creepy chapels,” “holy tantrums,” “prayed”—is juxtaposed with “slimy rivulets of effluent” and “fermented promises,” suggesting that faith has been co-opted or rendered powerless in the face of ecological decay, even calling contamination a “trial” or “God’s timing.” The final image of puddles as “mirrors” where “nothing dances” and the community “kneel to what we poured, drink what we termed holy” underscores a tragic acceptance of self-inflicted destruction, blending sorrow, accusation, and a call for awareness. The poem’s vivid, unsettling metaphors and its blend of personal, spiritual, and ecological loss make it a powerful, contemporary protest poem.