Starfish
Curitiba, Brazil
2020, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Momma,
who sank the stars,
and who drowned the sky?
How do you spell Pacific?
Tell me, have you seen it,
and is it just a God-sized tear?
Momma, then is this universe just a strip of beach? Then am I a castle or a ditch?
Then whose hands built me? Then whose fingernails dug me?
What part of me is gold, and what part of me is sweat,
spat from trite lips, feeding salt to the wretched land? Then is death just buoyancy,
the rising to where the spirit can breathe?
Am I rainbow or thunderstorm,
melting the earth of the countries I ravage?
Or, where do I end? Are there treasures at my fingertips? Then do I fly or do I swim?
Momma, whose son am I? Whose father?
If I march into the ocean, will I be pawn or will I be king? Faithful or wicked? Nester or hunter?
Momma,
how do you spell Pacific?
If I write her, is it a love letter or a eulogy?
A song or an epigraph?
Oh, momma,
it’s a shame.
Reflection
Reflection
I wrote this poem from the perspective of a young child first coming into touch with the sea. The questions that children ask are so unfiltered and pure, and often reveal answers we were too afraid to blurt out. In Starfish, I explore the relationship we all have to the ocean. I’ve always been fascinated with the ocean as an entity in mythology and literature, and especially its changing relationship with humankind. In antiquity, the sea was often perceived as this unsurmountable power, but once we began refining our seafaring technologies and sailed out to other continents, the dominance shifted. Although we can sometimes be under the impression that we are in control of nature, my poem uses the ocean and its mysteries as a setting to dive into philosophical questions about the impact of our actions on ocean life. Personally, this poem made me more aware of my own tie to the sea, as well of the ways I might be harming it. I put myself in the shoes of that child and truly felt the shame of not taking care of such an important part of my life. In a way, I called myself to action. I plan on majoring in politics in college and will use my knowledge to advocate for more work from large companies in order to protect the ocean.