My Neighbor’s Doomsday Clock
Tenafly, NJ
2023, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Climate Hero: Soeun Lee
The town hall’s gigantic golden clock is ticking faster than ever,
Time is running with only 90 seconds left until the end,
Running too fast for us to catch up to,
And we’re all late.
Through the pitch darkness appears an inspirational hero,
Who rewinds the clock back into our innocent pasts,
As she struggles to move the heavy clock hands,
We’re all watching her, silently.
My neighbor struggles to keep the clock’s hands from moving,
Preventing it from ringing 12 times,
Trying to help us catch up to it,
Like always, she’s there.
And we all wonder,
Will she be able to do it?
Will she be able to turn the tables?
And most importantly, will she be able to turn the clock hands?
“Help,”
The fragile old woman breathes,
Gazing down from the high clock tower,
Hugging the last remains of hope that she has for our Earth.
I recalled the way she taught me how to read the recycling bins in front of my house,
Taught me which label was which every day hoping for a healthy Earth,
Reprimanding me when I put the wrong trash in the wrong bin,
Congratulating me when I finally got it right.
Now trying to fix the problem we made back to innocence is where she is now,
Hoping that she can restore something that was better when we weren’t there,
Wishing for a better future waiting ahead of us,
But if only we had an innocent past…
And yet, she’s giving us a chance to redeem ourselves by asking for help,
A second chance is being given to us and we wonder if we should take it,
Something even better than any type of present,
We all gaze up at the clock tower.
And we shouldn’t be waiting,
After a moment of silence,
We all step forward,
And help.
Reflection
Reflection
I’ve crafted this poem with my neighbor as my climate hero. When I was young, she’d always tell me which recycling bin was for the paper and which was for the plastic. I always got them mixed up, accidentally putting the wrong material in the wrong bin at times. However, she never gave up and always guided me through the process, shaping myself to care for our Earth more than anything else. I formatted this poem in a way that shows the levels of hope rising and falling. During the first stanza, I made the first line the longest, and the length decreased as it went further along the stanza. This is a symbolism of the hope that used to be so big and is then shrinking. I also italicized the lines to show the difference between the first half of the poem and the second half of it. And then comes the turning point. During the third stanza, when my neighbor, Mrs. Kim, calls for help, the first line is shorter than the second because I wanted to convey the part where hope starts to grow. What’s depicted in the second half of the poem is that climate change is slowly starting to have less effect on us, shrinking into dust. I’ve described that with both the length and the non-italics to give that effect. Writing this piece made me extremely emotional. I was angry at all humans for being the ones ruining the Earth, but I was also proud of us at the same time because we aren’t giving up, fighting against climate change. So my message to my readers is to never give up faith. There are many people around us who are currently working against it, and we can always jump in to give a helping hand to rewind the clock back to normal.