poem Chlorine, a poem from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series By Chicago Poet and performance artist Janet Kuypers, Chlorine poem, periodic table poem, swimming pol poem, drinking water poem, Iraq war poem, Germans World War I poem, bomb poem, pepper and pineapple poem

[the Writing of Kuypers] [JanetKuypers.com] [Bio] [Poems] [Prose]

Chlorine (#017)
edited for the “Poetry Saloon at Noon” feature
at the Chicago Cultural Center 1/30//13
Janet Kuypers
from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series
My dad ran a construction company,
and after building our house,
he later built a swimming pool
in our back yard.
After that, my brother even got
a diving scholarship to college,
and even competed against
Olympic diver Greg Louganis...
But every summer,
after filling the pool with water
and adding Chlorine, my best friend
would come over to play
in the Chlorinated pool every day.
Even as a toddler with a mortal fear
of falling backwards into the deep end,
my sister would have to re-teach me every year
how to back dive into the Chlorinated pool.
But with my dad retired in Florida,
I visit him during the cold Chicago winters,
and sit by the pool, where the Chlorine
actually smells good
in the hundred degree heat.
But of course the Chlorine would smell good...
Chlorine’s even used in drinking water.
We use Chlorine in pools
when Chlorine’s usually found in salt,
in the earth as well as oceans, like the Dead Sea.
But just smell it:
too much Chlorine
is a really bad thing,
and this element as a gas
was even a weapon in World War One.
The Germans used “Bertholite” bombs
(which smelled like pepper and pineapple, actually),
and Chlorine bombs were even used in the Iraq War.
So yeah, Chlorine
might not be good for you,
but in the right amounts, Chlorine can also
kill off what might be bad for you too.
And I’m sorry, but that swimming pool
was way too much fun
to get rid of Chlorine altogether...

Chlorine
Janet Kuypers
from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series
7/12/12
My dad ran a construction company,
and after he built our house, he used concrete
from an extra job to build a swimming pool
in our back yard. My brother even got a diving
college scholarship, so I guess the pool
came in handy.
Every summer, after cleaning the pool,
filling it with water and adding the right amount
of Chlorine, my neighbor and best friend
would come over and paly in the chemically clean
pool with me daily. We’d even play
“Bottom Bump”, where we’d hold our breaths
to save us from the Chlorine, and we’d hold hands
and start doing flips underwater together
until we’d end up injuring ourselves
and have to come up for air. Even as a toddler,
because I was just a child and I had this mortal fear
of falling backwards into the deep end,
my sister would have to re-teach me every year
how to back dive into the Chlorine pool.
But now that my dad lives in the retirement
community he started in Florida years ago,
I visit him when I have the time during
the cold Chicago winters, and sit by the pool
they built right across the street from his house.
The Chlorine in that pool actually smells good
when you want relief from the hundred degree heat,
even if the pool is almost eighty degrees itself.
But of course the Chlorine would smell good,
when Chlorine is even used in drinking water.
And it’s funny that we use Chlorine in pools
while Chlorine is mostly found a a Chloride ion
in salt, that it’s found in the earth as well as
in oceans, like the Dead Sea.
Chlorine ions are in the Dead Sea,
and Chlorinated pools can save us from the heat.
But too much Chlorine in the water
is a bad thing, and if you don’t know that
from sniffing the bottle of Chlorine
before it’s poured into a swimming pool,
then know that as a gas, this element
was even used as a weapon in World War Two.
The Germans even used these “Bertholite” bombs
(which smelled like pepper and pineapple, actually),
and Chlorine bombs were even used in the Iraq War
(though the physical force of the bomb
may have been more devastating than the gas).
Because yeah, Chlorine is bad for the
respiratory system, but that’s how we learned
that in the right amounts, Chlorine can kill
the bad-for-you bacteria and gross germs
living in your drinking water, and Chlorine can kill
what can grow into something much worse for you
while stewing in a stagnant swimming pool.

Watch the YouTube video
of this Kuypers reading the poem live 1/26/13 on Chicago’s WZRD 88.3 FM radio (Canon),
with music from the HA!Man of South Africa
(2011 Hotel music “the Ice is Melting”)

See YouTube video
1/26/13 of Kuypers reading 8 Periodic Table poems (including this poem) on Chicago’s WZRD 88.3 FM radio (Canon), with the HA!Man of South Africa’s 2011 Hotel music the Ice is Melting playing

See YouTube video
1/26/13 of Kuypers reading 8 Periodic Table poems (including this poem) on Chicago’s WZRD 88.3 FM radio (Samsung), with the HA!Man of South Africa’s 2011 Hotel music the Ice is Melting playing

Watch this YouTube video
of this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem read live in Chicago 1/30/13 (Canon) at her feature Poetry Saloon at Noon

See YouTube video
of Kuypers reading her “Periodic Table” poems, including this one, live in her Chicago 1/30/13 feature Poetry Saloon at Noon, with background music from the HA!Man of South Africa’ “Wayward Waltz of the Fractured Wind”

Download this poem in the free chapbook
the Poetry Saloon at Noon,
w/ the Periodic Table of Poetry poems
chapbook of poems in this show.

Chlorine