Writing Prompt Wednesday: "Precious Metal", a sort of found poem.

This poem is sort of a lyrical summary of the article “Gold Fever” by Donovan Webster, from the February 2012 issue of Smithsonian.  It is similar to a found poem in that I still chose words and phrases from the article to create something new, but I also added in some of my own words and phrases, and kept the point of the poem the same as the general (yet far more subtle) point of the article, which I usually don’t do for my found poems.  But, this article incensed me so much (even though I came to it two years late), I wanted to keep the point, and make it more vivid.  It’s a story that brings a bitter taste to your mouth, for sure. 🙁  — JRF

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Precious Metal

the Peruvian rainforest
consumed in 40-foot-deep pits
600 yards across
illegal gold miners
chewing coca leaves to stay alive
waist-deep in muddy water
the gold-fleck-laced soil torn loose
water canons and
Stihl chain saws roaring destruction
felling trees 1200 years old
red macaws and toucans screaming
bright flashes of color fleeing
thousands of gaping cavities
swallowing Madre de Dios
a state among the most biodiverse
and pristine environments in the world
until now
1/4 the world’s terrestrial species
15% of landmass photosynthesis
razed, burned, contaminated
for $1700 an ounce
gotta hedge those losses
buy those luxury goods
such a precious metal
it’s worth eating mercury
who will stop a poor man from going to dig?
64,000 acres, more, strip-mined
left barren and dredged
the stench of forest burned to ash
the sacrifice to poverty and greed
$1700 per ounce
worth such destruction, such risk
four men die a week
sometimes up to seven
and poisoned for life on mercury
stomped with bare feet
rainforest to wasteland
only handfuls of remaining trees
bone-tired men risking everything
dumping untold tons of poison
into rivers
a tableau of ruin and mud
left behind
when gold is no longer worth it.
***