Reflection

Reflection

I decided to focus on my surroundings in the Houston area. I grew up walking to the Brazos River a few minutes away from my home and taking strolls with my family along its winding trail. As the floods and runoff have shaped my neighborhood, and the river itself has become dark and green with pollution, I have stopped going. My reflection of this once-beloved river fueled me to write a poem about my climate change story, with the Brazos River serving as a central symbol of the change that has shaped my surroundings. Furthermore, I made the decision to shape my poem in an hourglass form to represent how we are running out of time to find a solution to climate change. The hourglass represents the sands of time that we are trying to gain back. My hope is that after reading my poem, people will start to be more thoughtful of how their surroundings, especially the oceans and bodies of water near them, are deeply affected by their individual actions.