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If I Burn Fuel, Do I Kill A Creature?
Kate Winchell
Hockessin, DE
2024, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word

You know,
You try,
You stay the same

A shift
A rise
A simple change

A match lights
A spark occurs
And with the trapping of heat,
A creatures life is taken back

A match lights,
A spark occurs
And with what we call a massive feat
Our progress of preserving life retracts

Greenhouses mean growth,
mean shelter,
mean light

But with a simple spark we turn this into
A trap,
a trap of heat that turns our coral white

I see each ripple
Each reflection
Blurs of colors beyond
seeing

I feel empowered
While their power is taken away
A sea turtle
Against a
human being

Reflection

Many of the causes and effects of climate change work like a domino affect, with the "greenhouse effect" raising temperatures, high temperatures melting ice, melted ice rising the sea level, rising sea levels hurting mangroves, and the cycle repeating all over again. Some experiences that inspired my entry into this contest include snorkeling and swimming. I feel so empowered in the water, and the creatures around me are beautiful. I think it is absurd that simply because we are "us" that we are superior. We work so hard to preserve our lives, but not the lives of the world around us, even though we wouldn't be here without the world around us. I have always felt a deep love for anything ocean involved, and to think one day that it could be gone is terrible. In poetry I love to use repetition and alliteration. I think that poetry is so much more beautiful when it rolls off the tongue and is read passionately. Adding repetition and alliteration can help it read well.

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If I Burn Fuel, Do I Kill A Creature?

Congratulations winners of the 2025 Ocean Awareness Contest! View the innovative new collection of student work here!

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