Parallel Lives
Montrose, CA
2020, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
The mountains covered in a delicate layer of white that blinds the sun,
The color of renewal and safety coming from the trees—my mind at ease.
Another tree calls and the wind ruffles the leaves to fashion Hellos.
The rippling water joins the waves that crash my feet into imprints of sand.
The deep loyalty of blue invites me to swim along dancing waves.
The sun peeking through the water shows the fish that were raving.
My eyes drown into the same water that once showed faithfulness,
Into a world where only the sounds of blaring disorder and confusion
Deprive the people of the city their sanity and unity;
Roads enclosed within plastic cups, newspapers, metal cans, and gum wrappers;
Pointed shadows towering over many, demanding nature’s gifts;
A thousand lights blurring into outbreaks of red white toxic vapor that diffuses into air,
Air that is grasped by the millions of those who aimlessly torment themselves;
A future that is seized and by aspiration released from captivity.
On a lawn where there once lay a stretch of endless barren
Now lie solar panels that turn the once unbearable, blinding light into power.
Suddenly, the air that trapped us in our own waste becomes the very thing that frees us.
Unfamiliar, yet the inviting air welcomes and releases.
Rather than face the journey of peril and regret, we have choice.
What used to once inflict damage and harm, now grants purpose.
The same air that once used to choke and steal the lives of millions,
Suddenly gives back to those it once harmed.
The millions begin to see the vast clear stretch of blue above them,
The vibrant color and the nonexistent clouds in the sky now innocent and free,
Now unburdened by the portent of mankind’s self-indulgent desire.
Works Cited
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjr6z1GMDqc&list=PLWHhRzSHrMU_8b0SZmmNBVAmSCAzDkUdw&index=6&t=1s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX40AKezfoU&list=PLWHhRzSHrMU_8b0SZmmNBVAmSCAzDkUdw&index=4&t=0s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4URapRHxsmE&list=PLWHhRzSHrMU-pUX_R8creEG6gq3LI_69q&index=4&t=0s
Reflection
Through my poem, I hope to persuade people around the world that climate change won’t destroy us so long as we make the effort to adapt our current lifestyles to the needs of the environment. I want to give the reader hope that we can still create a future of growth and stability. My message to viewers of my writing is simply to see and to spread awareness about what we are doing to our homes and our future. After doing research on the climate crisis and potential solutions, I have recognized the extremes of what our future might face, but with the potential solutions considered, we can still help ourselves. The climate crisis is a choice, one we can still decide on. I have hope for our future because our future is not yet set.