All Anchors Break
Highlands Ranch, CO
2016, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
white creamy lace sand
gives way to the green blue sea
a breath of fresh air.
kicking off my shoes
my pb&j gritty
here i am, happy.
the water seems cold
but i get in anyway
and then i hear screams.
it is not my mouth
no human could make that noise
it is the sea’s grief.
howling, so far gone
lit up at night by toxins
both alive and dead.
it hums with decay
even the fish are crying-
“please, what did we do?”
desiccation here
a rotted corpse can’t beg help
annihilation.
you can’t swim in fire
so there’s nothing her e for me
someone else will help.
no, i will safeguard
the last breaths of the ocean
they are ours to love.
i will scoop the waste
away with my bare hands,
if that will fix it.
i will preach and speak
i will call god down myself
waves are human too.
Reflection
I wanted to write a series of poems, but in a story form. My parents lived in Russia for a time and when I was a child, I looked at pictures from their trip. They went as close to Chernobyl as you are allowed to go, and the water there was pure sludge. The idea of nuclear waste always scared me. The idea that it is in the ocean scares me even more. Not only is it harmful to humans, it’s harmful to marine life, too. In some places, the sea is vibrant and beautiful; in others, it’s full of plastic, oil, and trash. I wanted to describe this unnatural state in my poem. I tried to capture the idea that the sea is both alive and dead, and it’s our job to bring it back to life.