Mankind
Argyle, TX
2022, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
I was married to the creatures
With all the plants beside
And all the other features
Found in the deep blue tide.
But once, a teacup of Ocean,
Just whitecaps encased in sand,
I, the Sea, had a notion,
From the Humans up on land.
They were tired of the way I looked,
And then, so was I,
Their boats and vessels they unhooked,
As I spied with my Ocean eye.
They bleach my coral white (my gown)
They mined and drilled away my fats
They play their song of construction, deep down,
They fertilize my water causing massive algae rafts
They pour their oil to make me gleam
And fill me with Silicon to make it seem
Like my waves have curves, and then I swerve, to see
Will they deem me pretty, now?
I gasp at words so drastic,
I like natural. They say, You’re just filled with plastic!
Weeping, I return, to the place we call within, but there I found a barren land,
No fish, no shark, no whale, no fin; no turtle, no coral, no Life. Only sin.
And return?
They would never
To me? A disloyal bride?
For on my body there were
Fingerprints of a different man:
Mankind.
Reflection
I tried to keep the message clear: we have tampered with our ocean’s innocent livelihood, put our nasty fingerprints all over her, and now we are reaping the consequences. We have killed millions of habitats like coral; mined and dredged for aggregates; caused underwater noise pollution from construction; spilled chemicals, fertilizer, and oil; caused algae blooms and deoxygenation; and dumped millions of tons of plastic or “silicon” into the sea. And now? We will eat the contaminated spoils of our own doing. We will eat the toxins of our own chemicals. Maybe then, when our own livelihood is threatened, we will realize the poison we spill into the waves will just be brought to shore in the next tide. If the only way people will listen is through humor? So be it. But know that this little poem is far more than a children’s rhyme. It is a call to action. Before we really do find a “barren land.”