The Drifting
Vancouver, Canada
2022, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
I’ve got a tale
that’ll waggle your tails
It’s called sailing on the ice blocks
And watching the whales
The yacht made of ice
Breaking off the shelf
Has become in a dinghy
Enough room for an elf
The ocean waves crash
As we ride on a surfboard
And land on a beach
Not yet explored
I really love sun tanning
Swimming in the tropical lagoons
It really gives me a great new colour
To hang out with these buffoons
Most of the days we sunbathe
And lay on the sand
The sun glaring down on us
As we stroll hand in hand
Gone are the days
Of feeding on krill
We now enjoy clownfish
To keep our fill
But the best of all of this
Is the time we share
It’s just the three of us:
The penguin, the narwhal, and the polar bear.
Reflection
I decided to use a light-hearted, satirical tone in addition to child-like humour to present my poem. I decided to enter this Contest because recently, climate change has been more evident where I live. In June of 2021, there was record-breaking heat of over 40 degrees Celsius, but this year, in June of 2022, heavy rain covered the city with floods. As a coastal city, Vancouver is prone to rising ocean levels. This poem reflects on the fact that ocean levels are rising due to Arctic ice loss. One of the big contributors to the polar ice caps melting is carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. My poem focuses on the consequences of polar ice caps melting toward wildlife.