Miles Down
Portland, OR
2017, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Miles down there is no light
Beyond shipwrecks, beyond the kraken’s den,
Beyond greened bones, and bright coral
Below it all
Below sound
Beyond the faintest ripples of storms above
Below is the still darkness
Of the void between the galaxies
That has seeped into the hidden cracks
Below the rain soaked sidewalks of this planet
What dropped pennies and wedding rings hide below?
The ocean void has its own stars
Slower than a planet they form from dust
That drifts from above
They, older than humans ourselves, hidden gems
Of an the empire before
Anemones wave gentle fingers
Under pressure that would crack human bones
And Forams construct glass castles on their backs
In a place we thought nothing could survive
Except, perhaps, the bacteria
Brights smears of paint on an empty canvas
The darkness sees no days
Its creatures do not trace the seasons
But time passes
Aeroplanes fly
And factories work
Computers and coolers and fluorescents
Leak toxins in shades of blubber and pus
Everywhere
Below there are no skeletons to mark the deaths
No human eyes to pierce the darkness of
The shriveled husks and rot
Miles down there is no light
But pollution reaches everywhere
Bibliography
Frazer, Jennifer. “What Lives at the Bottom of the Mariana Trench? More Than You Might Think.” Scientific American Blog Network . Scientific American, n.d. Web. 06 June 2017.
Greene, Sean. “Extraordinary levels of pollution have contaminated even the deepest parts of the Pacific Ocean.” Los Angeles Times . Los Angeles Times, n.d. Web. 06 June 2017.
“Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) and Your Health.” Wisconsin Department of Health Services. N.p., 29 Apr. 2016. Web. 06 June 2017.
Reflection
Reflection
Humans have polluted the ocean by rationalizing that our actions can have no impact on its great expanses. The opposite is true. Our waste has reached and contaminated every corner of the earth. For a long time humans considered deep ocean trenches unreachable and untouchable. After all, we have only just begun to explore them. However, a recent study of the Mariana and Kermadec trenches found astounding levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in animals there. PCBs are a group of manufactured chemicals once used in various coolers and lubricants that cause cancer, negatively impact immune systems, and are otherwise harmful to life. Although they were banned in the US in the 1970s, they are now found within the fat of most humans, sometimes reaching dangerous or fatal levels. PCBs are only one more example of why we must carefully regulate the production and disposal of industrial products before it is too late. They also demonstrate how the environment, and especially the ocean, can never be isolated from the quality of human life.