It is 08 March 2025: International Women’s Day (and Day 825 of the Daily Poems). Our poet Katrina Naomi used to be a researcher on water quality; recently she has been beach cleaning – something that’s good to do this time of year, after the storms which throw up all sorts onto the tide line. The poem is from Battery Rocks, Katrina’s collection which won the Arthur Welton Award from the Society of Authors.
The Bathing Water Quality Inspector
I’ve left the microscope, desalination kit, my beautiful
chemicals at the lab where I analyse aqueous data
according to EU Directive 2006/7/EC. There’s evidence
of three slurry run-offs this past month. Always the same farm.
The water company holds its nose and releases. Grit
in the surf – a former barn reduced by developers
for yet another holiday home. Here’s the lesser contaminants:
dog hair (four varieties); one gannet in an advanced state
of decomposition; shreds of brushed cotton from 1970s pyjamas
(mens);
flakes from hardened rubber gloves; six different types
of urine – including my own; mackerel parts (undigested);
Stella, Heineken and the Co-op’s own brand, high-strength cans
(mostly crushed). Oestrogen traces. I’d estimate the percentage of salt
to be 3.5% in late March on a neap tide. Inevitably there’s plastic.
On this stretch it’s mostly orange and green nylon nets,
and supposedly biodegradable dog poo bags (with contents),
which I refuse to analyse. Yesterday, I found a love letter, ripped
into bite-sized pieces; biocides; a bull seal’s whisker; and surprisingly
no human sperm, despite Viagra compounds. I also detect
the love of 15 good women and a man’s tears. The sunlight
penetration is up to 7mm this morning. But it’s boat painting season:
expect particles of arsenic, ammonia, nickel and cadmium.
Faecal matter is to within a percentile point of good bathing water
quality but of course this will change after heavy rain.
Katrina Naomi
from Battery Rocks, Seren, 2024.