DNA: A Two-Part Poem of Genetic Fallibility
Flushing, NY
2016, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
| 5’ Strand
The inky blackness, Midnight in clear blue: Crudeness unearthed. Depths of man’s folly Still digging deeper.
Tranquil medium Oil separates From teeming water. Immersed innocence Stain spreading slow, sure.
Flailing, wrapped anew In tendrils of fuel Irreversible. Once clear, translucent; Now unnatural tint.
Consequential fear Motivates, deters Destruction. But here Lies reward: conquer, Exploit, dilute vice.
Deny not effects Of power thirst in Currency: in Satiable. Swallow Top layers of reason.
Pin down foresight, walk And breathe and gather Fortune unaware, Purposefully blind Prosperity sinks.
Man was not meant to Mix layers best apart. Rule to distinguish Pleasureable means: Now is what matters.
Nature builds from now Cleansed purity lost Too much to regain. Conflictions choke and Float, reflect the sun. |
3’ Strand
Complementary delve into the cell, sans syllabic Parameters. Perhaps the urge to conquer Inherently dwells. Twisted components of life condensed Separate, replicate, begin again.
Our base formed in rippling ocean, mere divergence In acquired characteristics. Cerulean stretches: below, liquid currents, Above, endless sky, Within, warring instinct.
Oil leaks out internally, in our stretch of mind Poison of inaction, gold to black guilt Unintentionally obtained, there to stay. Pass on a legacy, encoded within Of conscience, remorse, action.
For perhaps Nature did not bring about her own death When creating man self-important, aware. Thin-skinned being, turn your eyes to the ocean, Where your stains dwell. Rectify misdoings of your kind With prized cognition.
We were selected for our ability to survive, A mission accomplished far too well At the cost of countless other priceless forms of Life. Once living, have lived, live no more. The blood of innocents, perpetuated injustice.
Mix the salt of tears into the oceans, attempt to correct Levels of oilsheened clarity. Misguided endeavor, But well meant. Aren’t they all? Harness grief, Filter the water and start again: remedy lost innocence With care and love.
Ships leak their flowing cargo of oil, Just as man allows excess to slip through, carelessly tossedInto an ocean too saturated with life To become filled with castaway remnants of land. Free the tide from its chains of plastic and petroleum.
Perhaps the greatest fallacy, invalidated by recent history Is human perception of isolated longing to grow, achieve Regardless of loss. But if we are isolated islands, water connects, Sustains more than one million species, each worthy of notice. Let the beat of your heart ripple with conviction. |
Reflection
I was twelve years old when I learned of the Gulf oil spill. Since then I have been a staunch environmentalist, penning editorial pieces in newspapers urging against continual reliance on nonrenewable resources, especially oil. When I contemplated what to center my poem on through research, my primary emotions were guilt and curiosity; the latter emotion was specifically based on why we continue to destroy when we are well aware of the consequences. I wrote this poem, DNA: A TwoPart Poem of Genetic Fallibility, based on my dual existing passions for change and understanding. I first depict the visuals I imagine to result from oil spills in the 5’ strand section, as well as human justifications and meanderings around the issue. The 3’ strand takes on the issue from a deeper viewpoint, one that is more action-based. Nature, the ocean in particular, is being destroyed by man, a creation that was slowly built up from the processes that sustained her. There’s a paradox here I explore, and I ultimately compare the poison of inaction to that of unpredictable oil spills as our base human instincts for immediate gratification gradually unleash havoc on the world around us. We are more than mere beings of instinct: we pride ourselves on higher cognitive ability that should not be undermined by our base desires. The condition of our ocean begs for change, and I hope a somber realization of the future if we continue as we are prompts collective action in more people.