My Companion
Vancouver, WA
2015, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
I woke up and greeted him.
We lapped up against the shore.
On our way off the beach,
I touch my dirty, tainted body.
We quickly ran off to the island,
Where his friends waited.
There were miles of drifting before we got there.
As we floated, he gripped me tighter,
As if to protect me.
Just as we arrived,
A sea turtle was dying,
Lying there in the arms of his family.
We ignored it, as it was a daily procedure.
It felt cramped in my endless domain,
Only because we had to share it.
People were dumping stuff in me.
He whispered in my ear as usual,
Blocking my view, leaving me blind.
He made me forget the good times before,
He spoke of non- sense and evil.
I couldn’t make him be quiet.
I’m not sure where we went,
What we did.
Just his big bulky body of plastic.
We were out of the gyres!
I willed the currents to the haven
Of marine life, my friends.
They said something I couldn’t hear over him,
I tried to respond, but to no avail.
He kept on breaking my train of thought.
He whipped out, striking the dolphin on the side.
It cried out in pain,
And fell into the dark abyss of death.
We stepped off to the side,
Quickly vacating the crime scene.
Why? I scream, call, shout.
I blame him, this big gray thing.
He was the first,
And more and more had followed.
Soon the day was over,
The sun hid his face behind my body.
My mass was heavy, but his was heavier.
We trudged onward home.
When we got there,
I tried to push in, but he pulled against me.
When we finally made it,
I saw the place was infested with his kin.
Too tired to protest,
I figured it’d be better if we just went to sleep.
We lay down,
Him hogging the space.
I couldn’t fight him.
My last thought was both
“Someone save me,”
And, “I hate whoever puts him in.”
What I didn’t know was these were the same people,
And they had a choice,
Of which side to take: to build or to destroy.
“Goodnight Ocean,” he spoke to me.
“Goodnight Pollution,” I replied.
Reflection
Reflection
I created this because I wanted people to understand the ocean, plastic pollution, society, and you, are all interconnected and interdependent. In 6th grade, when I signed up for the elective “Current Events” this year, I did not expect to learn all that I did about how we, the people, are negatively impacting the only home we have ever known. What touched me the most was the story of our oceans, and our plastic. When I stumbled upon this website, I realized I really wanted to just take a stand for what I believe in.
When I wrote this free- verse poem, it was a way to express my feelings of sadness, of anger, of hope, onto paper, where it might be shared with many people. My wish is that others might see what I see when I look out to the ocean, and give and make the effort to protect what is ours, and to save it from what it has become.