strawberry daiquiris & plastic porridge
Irvine, CA
2021, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
i. in the “golden state,”
they have intoxicated waves
like my father / incessantly beating on the shoreline strong high and mighty
lusting for the illuminating sun whose rays
cure them of their acrid nature
tsundere surface level warmth
cerulean
luminescent sparkles the sun / she sprinkles them methodically sparingly across the surface
for they can blind you
of what’s hiding under
no, i’m not just talking about the kraken. if you are a plastic bottle
you feed them the elixir of life yet careless fingers let you go
zephyrs coax you / you tumble along the shoreline / towards
the roaring water whispering gravitational spells
closer
closer
then all of a sudden smothered you are / the mighty roars of the waves forces silence / your
thrashing your scream clawing at your cracking bottle neck gasping for air for freedom to
see the light
until she smothers your outcries and you are just a speck of venom coursing through her arteries
spanning nations
tumbling aimlessly,
unable to escape, you are just a plastic bottle
just like the millions before you
and the ones you lead
just one piece of plastic of 8 million entering the ocean each day
ii. the woman’s overpriced strawberry daiquiri
carelessly rocks between the edge of the seaside balcony and a wastebin below
if i see her waste another drop i hope she realizes
she drinks the blood sweat and tears
salty trail of tears a river running dry carving the parched skin of a fallen cherub halfway across
the globe
i hope the cherub doesn’t realize
that the reason that she can’t see her feet standing in the rotting garbage slurry &
the reason for the synthetic specks swirling in her morning porridge &
that the reason for her baby sister’s sunken cheeks her mama’s shriveled lips that can no longer
sing lullabies
the reason that they even scrape out the brown silicon mud from the bottom of the bone-dry river
for cooking and cleaning and crying
is because of ignorant thieves halfway across the globe
who waste strawberry daiquiris for the heck of it.
but i don’t need to worry no more
for i can see her stagnant body floating down the river that the capitalists fed white lies about,
claiming this to be the “water” of the baptism
///
the woman is pulled into a kiss, her lips stained with forgotten strawberry blood while his breath
reeks of the same gasoline that suffocates the sea cows
now the crimson sun is setting illuminating the couple’s moment
everyone at the beach, blinded by ignorance claps for their euphotic happiness
while the dolphins (and i) find it repulsive
between the splintered sunrays and the scattered tides
plastics bodies
lifelessness
drifts in darkness from shore to shore
Reflection
Reflection
As someone who grew up in Southern California, never more than a half-hour away from the beach, my love for the ocean and the beautiful life it supports was catalyzed at an early age. This past year, I chose to take an environmental science course at school, and I was shocked to learn about the sheer depth and magnitude of the issues we humans have caused to the world’s water sources. They are not just environmental such as pollution and loss of biodiversity; through research, I have also learned that environmental injustice exists, too. Littering, unsustainable fossil fuel usage, overconsumption, and the unethical polluting practices of international corporations wreak indescribable havoc on our waters, issues which in turn disproportionately hurt the impoverished of developing nations, most of whom do not have the facilities and strength to speak up for themselves. Learning about this made me feel grateful for my own voice, and inspired me to use this voice to raise awareness. The poem I wrote stems from a culmination of all the experiences I have had with the water (the ocean, more specifically) blown up to a global level as I attempt to convey that we must be intentional with our daily habits, for they could either help someone in another nation or even take their life. To most people, water is a mirror that “reflects back to us who we are.” Just as mirrors only show what’s going on on the surface level, the glittering sea people observe standing by the shoreline is just the tip of the iceberg, a facade covering all the issues that we humans have caused to the environment. People will need to actively work to learn more about our waters if they want to know the real truth. I will admit that I felt very worried about the state of the world and angry while writing about the dichotomy between how the poor and the rich interact with water within their day-to-day lives, but then I remembered that anger without action does not help. Just as writing this poem inspires me to continue writing to advocate for environmental issues and use my voice and actions to empower those around me to do the same, I hope that this poem reaches people around the world, galvanizing them to take action, too. Just as countless microscopic water molecules are needed to create vast oceans, small efforts by ordinary people have the power to grow into a giant, influential movement.