Sally’s Seashells
Great Neck, NY
2022, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Sally sells seashells by the seashore
There rests exquisite gems galore
That thousands travel to to adore
But still, Sally longs for more
So Sally sets off with all of her friends
In her luxury car—it is a new trending trend
And while her friends worry about the CO2 produced
“It was cold last week. It’s fine,” Sally has deduced
And so they stop by a fast-fashion clothing shop
An item on sale makes Sally’s eyes pop
The shirt is only $4.99
“I’m buying it, although this shirt will last shorter than this checkout line”
By then, the group is completely famished
Sally suggests a juicy beef sandwich
“This sandwich is absolutely insane”
“So is the environment’s amount of methane”
And on Sally goes without a care
Only to drive to another beach elsewhere
However, when the girls take a dive
They simply cannot believe their eyes
“Look at that horrendous coral reef”
“It’s whiter than the hair I just had bleached”
“So few fish and turtles appear”
“How will I take good Instagram pics here?”
With ocean acidity and temperatures on the rise
Corals, shellfish, and other sea life are meeting their demise
Sally’s actions fill her with dread
Because now it is being said:
Sally sold seashells by the seashore
Where once there lay exquisite gems galore
That thousands traveled to to adore
But where Sally now sells seashells no more
Reflection
This past summer, I went to my dream vacation destination, Hawaii. I was disappointed when I found the very first beach I visited littered with garbage and filled with bleached coral, which I hadn’t even known existed prior to this encounter. The image of the normally brightly colored coral being drained of color instead shook me into realizing the severity of the issue of climate change and its effect on the ocean. During my writing process, I knew I wanted to use bleached coral as a component in my poem. Upon further research, I learned about the changing ocean chemistry and plummeting biodiversity, too. I also came upon how the ocean’s increasing acidification is making it harder for certain organisms to build their shells, and this made me think of the classic tongue twister concerning Sally and her seashells. I took this character and made her perform many acts contributing to climate change; I tied her into a sad story about the effects of climate change in hopes of tugging heartstrings and pushing others to do their part in fighting climate change.