Poison
- Jessica Mercier
- Apr 7, 2021
- 2 min read
My breasts hold the poison of colonial and patriarchal development.
My breasts hold lead from paint in the house I grew up in.
My breasts hold the polluted air my mother breathed in, as her mother breathed in.
My breasts hold the toxic waste dumped into the oceans.
My breast can hold a lot, but not without poisoning me.
While big pharma and businesses manipulate us with run for the cure, pro intervention,
hidden voices of ecofeminists, scientists and advocates express how much my breasts need prevention.
Stop cancerous poison at the root, rather than try to treat it later,
It is my earth’s and breasts right to be healthy. It is not a favor.
We have holistic knowledges that have been silenced by destruction, at our finger tips.
Our collective voices can make a difference from our lips.
It’s our connection to natures destiny to thrive and grow free
My breasts have always held the solution inside of me.
I wrote this poem remembering the learning I did and am still doing about the casual links between breast cancer and environmental abuses such as toxic, pollutants and other harmful resources created and consequently affecting our environment and women’s health. It is my becoming piece of ecofeminism. Considering the work to only regulate toxics used, rather the eliminate toxics used, it calls for a relearning, and overall dismantling of the cure only- centred medical care systems and political connections to women’s breast health. Upon reading Rosenberg’s words about ecofeminist women’s health, with considerations of Indigenous local community knowledge towards making balanced healthy changes to our environmental care, she argues for a collective opening of the eyes to the evidence are available for sound preventative strategies for women’s breast cancer that are directly linked to the failed regulatory system of toxins and pollutants. I was so shaken after watching Pink Ribbons Inc, campaign years ago, about what is actually happening that I have been fueled and inspired to dig deeper. I have chosen a simplistic form of art which highlights the simplest form of beauty and how the approach to women’s health could be much simpler, and effective.
References
Rosenberg, Dorothy Goldin. "Feminist perspectives on breast cancer, environmental health and primary prevention: the case for the precautionary principle." Canadian Woman Studies, vol. 28, no. 2-3, 2010, p. 19+.
YouTube. (2020). Pink Ribbons Inc. (Nastri Rosa SpA) in italiano. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQqLMca2wlg.
I liked how the article talks about texture and the layers in art because it made me look at my own sketches more closely and think about depth in new ways. When I was finishing a big art write-up last year I used peer-reviewed journal article editing on my draft, and it helped me catch simple errors before class. That made me see that paying attention to small details really changes how others see your work.