Isn’t It Funny?
Bellmore, NY
2022, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Isn’t it funny
When ice caps get runny
And sea levels rise
But we still think it’s wise
To let pesticides fall
Into the place that we all
Need to be clean to survive.
This must be fixed if we are to remain alive.
Along with the toxins,
As the clock runs
Too many fish are being taken
Which should definitely awaken
Concern for the ocean
Because there is no magic potion
To put things back the way they used to be
Before we started to destroy our sea.
Isn’t it ironic
How our electronics
Mostly run on energy
That can be harmful to you and me?
Getting energy from fossil fuels
Will be one of the tools
That destroys our planet.
That can be laughable, can’t it?
Isn’t it amusing
How we are still choosing
To live with the same ways
That are numbering our days?
Our home is broke
And some still think it’s all a joke.
Increased acidification
Is the situation
Where more and more carbon dioxide
Is able to reside
In oceans.
In all this commotion,
We forget of the effects
And defects
That cause anguish
To species like the shellfish.
As the pH changes
Awakened are new dangers
That cause pteropod shells to dissolve.
I can’t think of a sillier problem to solve.
Isn’t it hysterical
How a giant spherical
Ball of rock
Now has a ticking clock?
How it can survive asteroids
And stop itself from floating into the void
But in 6,000 years
Since human civilization appeared
We have become only feared
By aquatic life that may not survive
For much longer because we have decided to deprive
Them from their natural Earth.
We have done so many things that are troublesome
And creatures of the sea might not think of it as chucklesome.
Why do we consider it a joke
And are not yet awoke
About the dangers we cause
All because we refuse to pause
The things we’ve come to know,
Things that cause the Earth to slowly go?
Climate change is real
And it is time that we feel
Sympathy for the animals that call the sea home.
If only one poem
Had enough humor
To convince us to let Earth resume her
Normal life
Before climate change caused so much strife.
Reflection
Reflection
My poem lists specific things that are happening to the ocean with humor. These things include pesticides polluting the oceans, overfishing, the burning of fossil fuels, and increased acidification. All of these things are serious issues that are currently affecting aquatic life and will soon affect us as well if we do not do something to change. Through this project, I have learned of the real mess that our oceans are in. We are going to have to act quickly if there is any hope of preserving our oceans and all of the aquatic creatures that call the water home.