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Brook Roberg
York, ME
2015, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word

In reality, no one actually cares.
Those who try to make a difference, may not try enough.
Those who do make a difference give up after they make a change.
This is reality
Trash is reality

Once in awhile we come across something special
Someone who always loves and never fights
Like an item that matches perfectly with everything in your modern home
A group who always perseveres

In some ways, trash is beautiful
The way it never stops living
How trash never gives up

Trash is also deadly
Killing our animals
Ending our world
Changing everyday scenarios

We are helping trash
Trash is a guilty criminal and we are helping this awful human get away with the most
lethal crime of all.

Trash never gives up
We always give up
That is our problem How do we expect to end this if we are not even close to ending our own issue of disguising and blaming
We blame trash

Think about life
Every single thing you ever threw away
Do you feel bad
Cause I do

Where is that trash now
Buried deep
Flying in the sky
Swaying in the ocean like a broken clock.

Water bottles
Last nights dinner
Wrapping paper
Your excessive use of tissues

Think about what you have thrown away
What was your first item you have ever thrown away
Who remembers that
No one remembers that
Simply because it is not important to us

It is only important to us when we know that we would have to change
Humans don’t want to change
But we need to change
Change means everything

Brook Roberge
Reflection
Reflection

I live in a small coastal town in Maine. Living here, I have seen many devastating things especially on our very public, very large beaches. I have seen anything from dead seals, to plastic bags floating in the ocean almost as though they belonged there. I have also learned about the effects of plastic, and trash in our oceans as well as landfills, and how they continue to effect our once green planet. This year, my Language Arts teacher, Jessica Baxter, inspired our school to make a difference. This year, she stressed how important this topic is to the eighth grade, and started a whole event called the "Trashion Show" with help from students and staff that is very successful in helping out the environment and making a difference within our town, and hopefully eventually the world. I know she is capable of this, and that is what inspired me to enter this competition because her passion reflected on me, and hopefully this poem. Without her, I feel as though our school would be a whole lot less green, and that is the last thing we want. We want to change the world.

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