Flames in Hand, A Choice
Artesia, CA
2020, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
I set a match to flame, to feel
The symphonious power in my palms.
A quivering evil that humbles the Earth to her knees.
Oxygen burns red-orange, carbon dioxide discarded
A black blanket that swallows my world.
Chlorofluorocarbon-catalysts consuming her ozone,
Shedding her protective shield,
Like a sheath of a dulled sword,
Showing her the Sun in full fury.
Leaving our blue planet
Vulnerable and choiceless,
Disrupting the symbiosis
That governs the vast waters
And the meaning of life
Since the dawn of existence.
I set a match to flame, to fathom
The ferocity of fifty-five factories,
Folded within a speeding timepiece
Counting down our prosperity
From a now eighty years,
Embellished with the beauty
Of thirty million bottle caps
And plastic wraps
That amplifies the steady saffron warmth
Of the sky, to the power of a million suns.
Ultraviolet rays, now ultra-violent waves
Coursing cancerous cells through our veins,
To my ten fingertips, sustaining a single flame,
That burns the only Earth we will ever know.
I set a match to flame, to follow
The hope of life flicker before me.
A wavering beast that synchronized my gaze to its motions.
I held a power that drew oceans from my eyes,
Lives out of oceans, and hope out of trees.
Humble beings longing to inhale one breeze
That did not suffocate their stomata,
Swelling them with embers, without choice.
Cinders of fallen sisters
Consumed by brothers waiting to surrender.
To my flame.
I set a match to flame, to face
What causes the blue silk insignia of our Earth,
The indigo ripples of linen, to
Swallow the land beneath my pruning feet.
Islands being engulfed in the piles of torn fabrics
Once embroidered illustriously
With divine calligraphy
Of pigments: cerulean seas,
Liquid glass reflecting azure skies above.
Now,
Mirroring the hopelessness of brown sunsets
And charcoal clouds.
Color is only the eye’s interpretation. Choice.
Now,
We see through lenses of methane membranes
And nitrous oxide smog.
Pretenses of progress and superiority,
Cloaked in the hopelessness of charcoal clouds and brown sunsets.
Now,
Hues of corals harmonized as chromatic,
Deep-sea, Flower bed, Choirs
Muted to the tone of a single carol.
Hushed by a wave, not of its own,
But of one that trails from the furnace
That fuels my pride.
I set a match to flame, to fall
Like the Earth’s protective armor,
Like the bearded seals and the bumblebees and the Asian elephants,
Along with all other life eradicated by my flared oxidation, but in
Remembrance I realized: Choice.
I allowed acid rain, cries from corrupt clouds,
To extinguish my flame,
Dissipating the dance of swirling black smoke rising from it.
I used my charred hands
To dig a hole, a promise
That contained three seeds from a Joshua tree,
Patience, passion, commitment, choice,
Enough space to grow and prosper,
and,
I buried my matchbox: a time capsule.
To be reopened
In the year 2101.
Works Cited
“Top 10 Things You Can Do about Climate Change.” David Suzuki Foundation, 15 June 2020, davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/top-10-ways-can-stop-climate-change/.
“How Climate Change Relates to Oceans.” WWF, World Wildlife Fund, www.worldwildlife.org/stories/how-climate-change-relates-to-oceans.
North Sea Foundation. “The Ugly Journey of a Plastic Bottle Cap: Project AWARE.” Project AWARE Homepage, www.projectaware.org/news/ugly-journey-plastic-bottle-cap.
UNUniversity. “Climate Change: What Happens after 2100?” Our World, ourworld.unu.edu/en/climate-change-what-happens-after-2100.
“5 Ways Climate Change Is Affecting Our Oceans.” Environmental Defense Fund, www.edf.org/blog/2013/10/08/5-ways-climate-change-affecting-our-oceans.
Kiefer, Philip. “Iconic Joshua Trees May Disappear – but Scientists Are Fighting Back.” Joshua Trees May Disappear with Climate Change – but Scientists Are Working to Save Them, 15 Oct. 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/10/joshua-trees-moths-threatened-climate-change-scientists-seek-solutions/.
Reflection
Reflection
This piece illustrates the power of choice and how everyone has the ability to change a situation. While writing poetry, I like to incorporate many metaphors to create a very colorful representation of society to the audience. I used repetition of different motifs, like choice, or the lack of it, to show the gradual realization of the harm pollution and other contaminants can cause to the environment. In the beginning, the flame is almost worshiped as a great and powerful force that is a privilege to have in possession. However, as the poem progresses, the praise shifts from the flame to the natural elements of the world and depicts the flame as the destructive entity it can be. Through the process, I was able to learn about many species that are at risk of extinction due to the change in temperature as an effect of our overuse of toxic fossil fuels. What gives me hope for the future is the dedication of large groups of passionate people mobilizing their efforts to achieve the goal of fighting climate change. I am deeply inspired when young people like me use their talents—whether it be public speaking, choreography, art, or writing—to advance an agenda that will save the world from destruction in the future. The youth, like in my poem, are developing an understanding of choice and are harnessing the courage to choose a life that ensures a prosperous future.