The Effluvial Redemption of Samuel Sewall

audio: The Effluvial Redemption of Samuel Sewall
audio of John Wall Barger's poem, The Effluvial Redemption of Samuel Sewall

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John Wall Barger

The Effluvial Redemption of Samuel Sewall

 

               Samuel Sewall, a judge at the 1692 Salem witchcraft trials,
      killed women. Sewage—from Old French essouier,
                        “to drain”—released to waterways

               such as rivers flowing to larger bodies like seas.
      A ghoulish, fire-breathing judge.
                        In a sedimentation tank,

               fecal sludge is pumped, bacteria
      dried, detoxified. Processed, treated,
                        purified. Sewall, in puritanical plumage,

               fluent in the ruinous vernacular,
      condemned twenty to death by hanging.
                        Any remaining organic material

               dissolves in the effluent. Five years later
      Sewall repented, admitting
                        he was wrong. Which is called humus.

               In 1718, he was appointed chief justice,
      superior court of judicature.
                        In these tanks, solids sink

               to the bottom. In his old age, he criticized slavery.
      These Ethiopians, he wrote,
                        ought to be treated

               with a Respect agreeable.
      Sewage can be used to run your car,
                        make methane, hydroelectric power,

               coal. World history a draining.
      So then, says the Son of Man,
                        because thou art lukewarm,

               and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee
      out of my mouth. An eruption,
                        regurgitation. It can even power

               cell phones. A flood. Sewall
      considered himself more at fault than others.
                        Fecal bacteria

               may occur in ambient water
      as a result of the overflow of domestic sewage.
                        No other judge

               had a change of heart.
      Trace amounts of feces exist in all water
                        on earth.