The Destruction of Life
Flushing, NY
2015, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
The stork sways by carrying new life in its beak,
As the blessed infant’s laughter echoes in the winds,
Its vitality shines bright without the need to speak,
And so the life cycle begins.
Day by day, time scurries by,
The journey to the swing set begins,
Down the ancient slide the new toddler goes,
And up the insidious bars of childhood,
Each step taken, some thud with fury,
Others gently pat the dry ground,
A new journey in life,
But the demise of the insignificant does not awaken any sound,
And here begins the destruction of life.
Yes these steps are taken by not only the human species,
While a child has successfully taken its first few paces,
The forlorn piscatorial fledgling flaps its gentle fins,
Sparking new life in the tides of the everlasting ecosystem,
And so the life cycle begins.
The vast bright oceans that bring life to the world,
The copious water that flows in the pulchritude oceans,
The celestial blue that brings peace to every soul that ventures in its perpetual depths,
The foundation of beauty for our dying environment,
But soon begins the destruction of life.
Yet the everlasting ocean faces the atrocities of humankind,
The negligent actions of the superior species,
The heavenly ocean now a murky tide of despair,
The melancholic river reeks of grotesque residue,
And here begins the destruction of life.
Now the child has grown older, and the dead have deceased,
The arrows fly into the ocean where the famished creatures search for survival,
Stabbing the hearts of the newborn fledgling,
Tricking the creature with false illusions of food,
Then reeling it in and grabbing the lifeless youth.
The creature tries to extricate but holds no power,
And hear begins the destruction of life.
No human ear can hear the hollow,
No superior species can feel the pain,
And here begins the destruction of life.
Now the human child enters adulthood, ready to drive,
Blowing off fumes just to effortlessly reach a point,
While the tiny creatures swim up and down for hours,
Hundreds of miles but a single human foot,
Choking and struggling on the deliberateness of mankind,
And here begins the destruction of life.
The creatures peacefully sit in their wasted homes,
Searching for food but only finding insidious bottle caps,
Hoping its edible and desperate enough to try it,
Then dying before warning its fellow fish-mates,
And here begins the destruction of life.
And the ducks quietly quack in their lonesome pond,
Each day their number of friends slowly receding,
And being replaced by human waste.
And as years pass by, we double and triple in number,
While the inferior ones cease to exist.
The stork that brought the baby anew,
Now hunted down for sport or food,
And here perpetuates the destruction of life.
Reflection
The purpose of this poem is to increase awareness on environmental problems, most specifically oceans. The poem starts out with an allusion to Greek mythology, and how storks represent new life/birth. Then, I talk about how humans are born and praised, while other creatures are neglected by the “superior species” (humans). The “demise of the insignificant” refers to the fish whose deaths are unnoticed. I also used repetition at the ends of stanzas, such as “and so the life cycle begins” and “and here begins the destruction of life,” to emphasize how carelessly the valuable lives in the world are so easily destroyed. Then I begin to talk about how the newborn child begins to grow up and live their happy, playful life, while the “creatures” in the sea, who are also newborn life, have to struggle for survival. I use one stanza to discuss the beauty and bliss of the ocean, and then, in the next stanza, I switch to a gloomy mood, and talk about how the ocean is so deliberately destroyed. I continue by talking about how the child has grown up and begins driving, while polluting the ocean, which is home to many dying fish. I also talk about how waste is compiled into the ocean and is destroying the undersea population. I end by saying “and here perpetuates the destruction of life” because even though the polluting of the sea is obvious and detrimental, we are too careless, and continue to neglect the ocean.