By Noel Fang
10th grade | Ballantyne Ridge High School | North Carolina
Finalist in the K–11 contest, Global Health category

With lines from “Where There Is Salt: U.S. Company Drilled for Oil in Kenya — and Left Behind Soaring Cancer Rates” by Georgia Gee and Nelly Madegwa, a Pulitzer Center-supported story

I. Salt the Color of Bones

In Kargi, the oil pits remain
after the white astronauts packed
their instruments and vanished.
The shallow basins collect
rainwater, which officials declare
perfectly clean. By noon,
a metallic film gathers on
the water. Grainy white
residue dries into dust
like crushed bones.

The area becomes
known as kwa chuvmi,
where there is salt. Sediment
makes its way into homes,
onto cooking surfaces, settling
into the mouths of those
who only know it as food.
Gumathi remembers his mother
coughing until she could
no longer swallow tea.

Still, the villagers take dented
yellow jerrycans to kwa chuvmi,
lowering them into the pit
despite the water’s visible
haze, the oil sheen sparkling
under the rising Kenyan sun. Sheep
and camels drink from this same
basin, for it is the only supply
villagers can afford.

II. Narrowing the Throat

Goat meat goes down

          like shards
                                    of glass

when symptoms begin in the throat.

Each swallow, scraping downward
like deep wounds have been 

          sliced
                        into their
                                              bodies.

No manyatta is safe
as cancer settles into
the throat and stomach.
Some say it is a
                                  punishment
from God.

Gumathi takes his mother
to the desert hospital again
and again, until
one day he stands
                                         in front
of her grave.

Six years later, her ghost still
     c r a w l s

from the manyattas
     of death
                         and through
the long hallways of the court.

Noel Fang is a rising junior from Charlotte, North Carolina, who enjoys learning about science and history. Specifically, she is fascinated by chemistry and the stories of World War II. In her free time, she expresses her creativity through writing poems and essays, stays active by swimming, and finds much joy in working with children. She hopes to study medicine in the future, while always continuing her writing journey.

Read more winning entries from the 2026 Fighting Words Poetry Contest.