Cheeseburgers Killed the Movement
Milpitas, CA
2022, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Cheeseburgers killed the movement.
After a couple hundred thousand deaths,
four times as many homes washed away,
it gained a bit of momentum.
And then they said
stop eating burgers.
“It’s an invasion of freedom!”
says my dad.
“I’m busy right now, I don’t care,”
says my mom.
“Why should I give up burgers?
What about the corporations?
The politicians?
The industry, capitalism?!”
says my uncle, who has not voted
since 1984, taking a bite of his
deluxe double-double.
Burger places started using green dye
and printing trees on their packaging.
They said they were spreading awareness
and that was enough
for those who were unaware.
Some sought out other laws and new norms.
Restrict oils, cut plastic,
protect the blue
of the sky and the sea,
but no one could get past
the burger thing.
So nobody really paid attention.
And now we stand with our feet submerged
in mushy warm water,
the phlegm of the world,
made up by grease, beef,
lettuce, tomato, and cheese
layered on the ocean,
like an algae effigy.
Small steps precede real change,
and even now, I’m incredulous
at the heat of this cheesy apocalypse,
as our world cooks to perfection,
well done.
Reflection
Reflection
I wanted my poem to find humor in the ridiculousness of a lot of discourse that holds us back from tackling climate change together, whether it's pessimistic, socially aware apathy or corporate virtue-signaling. I think pretty much all of it is simply an excuse to eschew inconvenience, one way or another, and I wanted to use the metaphor of something as silly as cheeseburgers to satirize that ridiculousness more clearly. Much of what I learned about climate change actually gave me a lot of determination and clarity rather than hopelessness, since they centered around how individuals can create change (for instance, through reducing their consumption of beef). I wanted to get across the small, and even easy, steps we can start with, the very tangible effects both individually and societally that personal change creates. Large-scale systemic changes must base themselves in individual dedication. We change as individuals, communicate, influence, and create larger shifts in our democracy to create social and political reform. Both are necessary to fight the threat of our climate crisis. By showing a society that fails to do that, I wanted to encourage a very real change we can make to set ourselves on an alternative path.