The Debris
Taguig, Philippines
2017, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
It makes its way into the ocean.
Following the current,
waiting to degrade.
Only to be broken down
into smaller fragments.
Many pieces enter a fish.
Some are snatched into
a seagull’s hungry beak.
Others join a gyre swirling
of marine debris.
The gyre grows with
every bottle and its cap,
every plastic bag and wrapper.
Its territory stretches from a
Micro-plastic to an island.
Like a splatter of assorted
paint on a blue canvas,
it merges with the once
pristine sea. A soupy
whirlpool in ultramarine.
It fools sea life to take a bite out
of it and harms those who do.
It reflects sunlight and
starves the plankton.
It disrupts the food chain.
It started from that bottle of water,
from the plastic bag. It will never
end, it will never degrade.
But it might find its way to your
dinner table in the form of a fish.
Reflection
Before I started this project, I had minimal knowledge of ocean pollution. It was not a very important issue to me. However, as I started to build up facts about ocean pollution, I realized that it is a critical issue not only to me, but the global community. At first, entering this Contest had not much meaning to me. To me, it was something where I could gain experience on writing. As I progressed, I began to feel much more meaning to it. Through the Contest, I learned how I am a cause of ocean pollution. Whether it is through the use of plastics or using cars, I am, to some extent, causing climate change. I hope that I can also be a solution. The thought that the water is 71% of the earth, and we are polluting the water, angers me. Mankind currently has nowhere to stay besides Earth, yet we are treating it as if it were one of millions of planets that we could live on. I believe that what we are doing to the ocean will come back to us. I believe that preserving the ocean will benefit not only the environment, but also humans.