Whale Song
Jericho, NY
2020, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
As crude oil pours in,
And hunters run amok,
As plastic is thrown in
And fish are chopped,
My hopes and dreams flee.
I sing my whale song in desperation,
Desiring help and safety,
Only to witness those close to me perish.
I see the birds turn from white to black,
I see the melting of frozen ice caps,
I see turtles choke on plastic rings,
Yet no one comes to help.
No one ever does.
Harpoons are thrown, some miss,
Some don’t. Why do I survive?
I dive, I dive deep under the sea,
So no harpoons get to me.
But I must sing my whale song,
I must persevere
For someone must come.
Someone will come.
Someone might come.
Yet what is that on the horizon?
People help the black birds
Turn their feathers white again.
I see the ones dressed in white and blue
Remove the rings off the turtles.
Some pick up the garbage thrown into my home,
Others remove harpoons from my family members’
backs.
I must sing my whale song with pride.
So oil is cleaned up,
Plastic cups are picked up,
Fish thrive,
And hunters disappear.
We all must sing the whale song.
Reflection
My piece is about what a whale in the ocean sees and experiences, including the horrors of pollution and overfishing. What inspired my work was when I stumbled across a video of a group of people hunting whales and mocking them as they harpooned them. I wrote this piece to inform people about what is happening in our oceans and what others are doing to help. I have learned about how detrimental pollution is for our oceans. I not only understand but feel for the creatures who have to live in a world where their way of life is threatened by those above. Even though I understand the pain that these beautiful creatures feel, I draw my hope from those who persevere and protest against the pollution. I get my hope from those who help clean up the beaches and those who help the creatures in the sea. Now that I understand how big of a crisis ocean pollution is, I will help by picking up plastic when I go to a beach and trying to support any animal I see that is in need of help.