Breathing Stats, Olympics

                                               

            Breathing Stats, Olympics

Some sour puss in the British

government, a rotting apple

chucked out perhaps

from the kitchen at Number 10,

Downing Street, has released

reports about ozone concentrates

over southern England

to coincide with the first salvos

of the Olympic Games.

When the world is staring

at British-style nurses dancing

at the Opening Ceremony,  

we read that athletes

will have trouble breathing,

that excess of nitrogen

dioxide and other pollutants—

far more, curiously,

than in Beijing which

stopped nearby industry

for the Games’ duration,

an option unavailable

to the free capitalist--

along with the expected

heat wave, will cause

asthma attacks and

hardly a world record.

Just imagine

the Olympics to come

over the rest of time,

wheezing and coughing

before sputtering

out of starting blocks.

Now, I understand

you would rather I stop

writing and just watch

the athletics, but as we wait

also for our party conventions

every four years, I ask

you fellow Americans

and democrats, and all

other readers through

the free internet, shall

we make believe, or deliver

a few, hard to smoke,

certainly inconvenient truths?

            Indran Amirthanayagam, July 28, 2012