Our Masterpiece
Cumberland, ME
2017, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Some polystyrene beads here
Some fishing nets there
No, that’s not quite right
Maybe add color to the ocean floor
This blue plastiglomerate looks nice
No, it still needs more
These hydrophobic substances will do
They’ll work nicely with the gyres that have amassed
No, there’s still something missing
How about we add some more detail
Microplastics so small that they will travel up the entire food chain
No, that can’t be all
Maybe poorly insulate the landfills for leaking
With the background an era of convenience
Now we’re getting somewhere
Beautiful isn’t it?
A true masterpiece
Bibliography:
Groden, Claire. “Ocean Plastic Pollution Is Reaching Crisis Levels.” New Ocean Conservancy Report Finds Plastics in Ocean at Crisis Level | Fortune.com . Fortune, 01 Oct. 2015. Web. 18 June 2017.
McCoy, Terrence. “Can the ‘largest Cleanup in History’ save the Ocean?” The Washington Post . WP Company, 01 Feb. 2016. Web. 18 June 2017.
“Movement.” | OR&R’s Marine Debris Program . USA.gov, n.d. Web. 18 June 2017.
Stevens, Alison Pearce. “Tiny Plastic, Big Problem.” Science News for Students . ScienceNews, 16 June 2015. Web. 18 June 2017.
Reflection
In designing this poem, I hoped to connect the reader to the underlying theme of ignorance and negligence related to plastic pollution. Marine debris is an issue I feel people keep pushing aside; thinking about it for a short period of time, promising themselves they’ll do whatever they can to put a stop to it, only to proceed harming the delicate ecosystem within our waters because it’s easier to do so. Be it a painter or even an evil god that the reader imagines the voice of the poem belongs to, the truth of the matter is that it’s us. We as human beings continue to paint an ugly picture for ourselves and carry on to cause destruction despite the damage we see being done, as though we want ocean pollution to keep happening. Thus I feel that the sarcasm used in this poem is symbolic of our attitude towards marine debris. It is our and only our problem to fix and it is a masterpiece of a problem.