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Outside Inside

ADAM D I C K I N S ON Department of English, Language and Literature, Brock University, Canada

Abstract Through the proliferation of plastics, and chemical pollution more generally, petro-

chemicals constitute forms of social, material, and biological writing. Howmight contemporary

writers respond to the capacity of petrochemical hyperobjects to influence social formations or

alter human metabolism? This selection of poems is an attempt to work within a necessarily

expanded notion of what constitutes reading and writing in the Anthropocene. Incorporating

the results of biomonitoring tests for phthalates on the author’s own urine, the poems con-

sider the “metabolic poetics” of endocrine disrupting chemicals. By focusing on the “outside”

that is “inside,” the poems draw attention to the coextensive and intra-active nature of the

body with its environment and the consequent implications for linking the human to the non-

human and the personal to the global in environmental ethics.

Keywords Anthropocene, biomonitoring, endocrine disruption, metabolic poetics, phthalates,

poetry

H ormones have their own poetics. Secreted into the circulatory system in response to

chemical signals, hormones write to distant organs. Their task is the prosody of

metabolism—cellular rhythms harvest energy from food and air to fuel digestion, repro-

duction, growth, and the general health of a body. This book of glands and hormones

makes up the endocrine system, an enduring evolutionary adaptation that has changed

little in millions of years. Estrogen and its receptors are ancient, having continued for

eons to perform important functions in all vertebrates and even in some insects.1 The

hormone and its receptor fit together like a head into hands, or a hack into a password.

The emergence of petrochemicals in the Anthropocene has coincided with the prolifer-

ation of endocrine disrupting chemicals. These hormonal mimics, present in many

common consumer products, are mistaken for keys to cellular locks, altering the body’s

hormonal chemistry.2 Phytoestrogens, abundant in many of the plants we eat, are

also estrogen mimics; however, they are familiar antagonists in the long history of

1. Trimel, “Estrogen Emerges as Most Ancient of All Hormones,” 2; Mechoulam et al. “Estrogens in In-

sects,” 942.

2. Colborn, Dumanoski, and Myers, Our Stolen Future, 71–75

Environmental Humanities 11:1 (May 2019) DOI 10.1215/22011919-7349477 © 2019 Adam Dickinson This is an open access article distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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evolution—they are a defense mechanism against grazing.3 Plant estrogens lack the

unprecedented potency of emerging chemicals such as phthalates.4 Phthalates are in

everything from personal-care products, medical devices, and food packaging, to chil-

dren’s toys, air fresheners, and building materials. They are added to plastics to make

them soft and pliable, to cosmetics as a lubricant and penetrant, and to fragrances and

other scented products to increase the longevity of smells.5 The characteristic and

desirable “new car smell” is composed in part of phthalates off-gassing from plastic fin-

ishes. As estrogen mimics, phthalates can adversely affect the development of the

reproductive system in mammals.6 They have been linked to infertility, lowered sperm

counts, various reproductive tract malformations, asthma, obesity, and cancer, among

other toxic effects.7

How might we shift the frames and scales of conventional forms of signification in

order to bring into focus the often inscrutable biological and cultural writing intrinsic to

this Anthropocene moment? One place to look, by way of an expanded notion of writ-

ing, is in the metabolic processes of human bodies and their inextricable link to the

global metabolism of energy and capital. As an attempt to explore this “metabolic poet-

ics,” I tested my blood and urine for hundreds of chemicals, including phthalates. I

wrote about some of the issues associated with what I found. The epigraphs to the sec-

tions in the following poem “Disruptors” indicate urine levels of various metabolites

that signal the presence of a particular phthalate in my body. What’s inside me is very

likely inside you, too.

Disruptors

Mono-(2–ethyl)-hexyl phthalate (Urine): 9.94 ng/mL

Under pressure to be fearless, the male brain sweats in a jar. The two halves are drawing

different conclusions. How are other people feeling? The male brain thumbs tacks. Hav-

ing been doused in an embryo at the buzzer, the male brain wanders into problems with

a backpack full of explosives. Every night a pilot light schools its flagellant arms race,

annealing metals in its dismounted police. Having bravely stood in a javelin rain, the

male brain turns a blow dryer on a friend’s stream of pee. Though it will never admit to

this, the male brain is tense that its tense is the future perfect: what will have been the

means by which it means? It squats in its skull like a cork.

Mono-(3–carboxypropyl) phthalate (Urine): 11.8 ng/mL

Grasses defend themselves.

Succulents defend themselves.

3. Hughes, “Phytochemical Mimicry of Reproductive Hormones,” 171.

4. Colborn, Dumanoski, and Myers, Our Stolen Future, 81–82.

5. Smith and Lourie, Slow Death by Rubber Duck, 35.

6. Rodgers et al. “Phthalates,” 31.

7. Crinnion, “Toxic Effects,” 190.

Dickinson / Outside Inside 175

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In an ordinary field, spines

and thorns. Foraged plants

defend themselves. Tannins,

terpenes, alkaloids. Difficulty

ripping and swallowing. Shrubs

have molecules dedicated

to bitterness. Some spike dead

stems to stop grazing. Some

suppress fertility in animals

that feed on them. Estrogen

mimics in phenolic rings. Beet,

barley, sunflower, rapeseed defend

themselves. Greeks and Romans

ate pine and pomegranate

to prevent pregnancy. Wheat,

sage, alfalfa, clover, soybean,

garlic, and hollyhock defend themselves.

Estradiol in the pill, phytoestrogens

in apples, bluegrass, oats, cherries,

rice, and rye. Plants defend themselves.

Dead plants defend themselves

rearranged into plastics. Estrogens

in air fresheners, shower curtains,

detergents, cosmetics. Estrogens

in water bottles, flame retardants,

children’s toys, money. Estrogens

coat hands holding receipts.

Estrogens accumulate like sensible

heat. Date palm, rhubarb, willow

defend themselves. Plum, potato,

parsley defend themselves. Coffees

defend themselves with contraceptives.

In the beans, in the Mesozoic algae

in the disposable cup.

Mono-n-butyl phthalate (Urine): 30.9 ng/mL

A stone rolled in front of a cave makes a mediocre lock. A crocodile in a moat is more

difficult to pick. Locksmiths don’t call these locks any more than they would a chair

wedged against a door. To make it legit, a key must appear—a combination, a steroid.

176 Environmental Humanities 11:1 / May 2019

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Almost every key has a bow. To get her husband’s bow from the storeroom, Penelope

went upstairs to retrieve a key made of bronze with a handle of ivory. A lock is a psy-

chological threshold. A key is a suitor who can shoot an arrow through a line of twelve

axes. Everything required to put together a baby must arrive at precisely the right mo-

ment. Sometimes my kids take my keys. Organs snap open and shut at each gate.

They’re under the couch, inside the microwave, and in the freezer. They’re outside still

stuck in the door. I’ve found them in my other hand.

Mono-benzyl phthalate (Urine): 4.63 ng/mL

Heliotrope musk

still fat

in the asphalt

after sundown

open road

balsamic

blacktop

terpene pines

in my memory

dark notes

divide the stars

Figure 1. Can writing

function as a productive

hormone disruptor within

larger cultural narrative

sequences? This is my

urine. Its metabolites

are messages.

Dickinson / Outside Inside 177

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with resin-scented

pencil shavings

the gearshift

and seat cushions

the paraben

dichloromethane

we are ringed

in anamalic aldehydes

luminous and almond

the trail left

from the wake

of washed hair.

ADAM DICKINSON is the author of four books of poetry. His work has been nominated for the

Governor General’s Award for Poetry and twice for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. He is a

professor of poetics and creative writing at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

References

Colborn, Theo, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers. Our Stolen Future. New York: Plume,

1997.

Crinnion, Walter J. “Toxic Effects of the Easily Avoidable Phthalates and Parabens.” Alternative Medi-

cine Review 15, no. 3 (2010): 190–96.

Figure 2. Being able to read

the chemicals in bodily

fluids means being able to

read the writing of the

Anthropocene in ways we

have not been able to do

yet, in ways that might

illuminate the common

crowds we bear and the

crowds in common that

we are.

178 Environmental Humanities 11:1 / May 2019

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Hughes, Claude L., Jr. “Phytochemical Mimicry of Reproductive Hormones and Modulation of Herbi-

vore Fertility by Phytoestrogens.” Environmental Health Perspectives 78 (1988): 171–75.

Mechoulam, R., R. W. Brueggemeier, and D. L. Denlinger. “Estrogens in Insects.” Experientia 40 (1984):

942–44.

Rodgers, Kathryn M., Ruthann A. Rudel, and Allan C. Just. “Phthalates in Food Packaging, Consumer

Products, and Indoor Environments.” In Toxicants in Food Packaging and Household Plastics: Expo-

sure and Health Risk to Consumers, edited by Suzanne. M. Snedeker, 31–59. New York: Humana

Press, Springer-Verlag, 2014.

Smith, Rick, and Bruce Lourie. Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Af-

fects Our Health. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2009.

Trimel, Suzanne. “Estrogen Emerges as Most Ancient of All Hormones.” Columbia University Record,

May 4, 2001, 2–4.

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