the ocean’s daughter
New York, NY
2020, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
the girl with
seaweed tumbling through her hair,
blue-green waves rolling in her eyes, sea salt trickling through her blood.
her feet fixed in the golden sand,
she watches poison pour onto the silken shores. plastic.
her sharp eyes indecipherable,
she bends down to grasp something— a bottle cap, its bright color a warning sign— before pocketing it carefully
and stooping down again,
a curtsy to the sea,
to reach for another.
like the tides roll in,
she comes back
and starts again;
but she does not hesitate now,
her hands firm and certain
as she fights for a life
she will not live to see.
seasons blur and fade,
ice cracks and shifts,
sunsets rise and fall.
but the plastic keeps coming,
so she does not give up
because her hope is the only antidote to the poison.
Reflection
Growing up, I never really put much thought into fighting climate change. I knew about it and I learned about it in school, but I didn’t think about how it was affecting me or how and why I should do something to help. However, after I came across pictures of sea otters stranded in oil spills and plastic spilling out of seagulls' stomachs, I began to really think about what was happening around me. I realized that climate change is a much bigger problem than many people, including me, think it is, and that it is not a problem we have to fix “soon” or “later.” It is a problem we have to fix now, and it is a problem we have to fix fast. So as I wrote my poem, I wanted to demonstrate that just one person can do something to help, no matter how small it might seem to be. For me, I have been specifically working to reduce the amount of energy and water I use, whether by taking shorter showers or turning off lights I don’t really need. Writing this poem has taught me that hope and persistence is vital to the climate crisis, and with that mindset we will find a way to prevail. Going forward, I want to continue to raise my voice through writing and support the battle against climate change.