voicemails
Lexington, MA
2024, Junior, Poetry & Spoken Word
beep
“hello, how’s your summer been?
it’s terrible here, sweltering heat in the middle of a drought
it was 100 degrees last week and
there was no water to drink.
you wouldn’t believe how hot it was.
on the verge of passing out
but we’ll be fine.
call me back if you have time later.”
beep
“hi, how are you?
i saw your message,
i forgot to reply.
by the way, did you see
the gofundme i sent you?
we’d all appreciate if you could donate
to the rebuilding efforts
but don’t worry too much, we’re fine
or as fine as you can be when
you’re up to your knees in water
and everything around you is destroyed.
i know a friend of a friend of a friend
who lost a kid to the hurricane.
we’re praying for them
but thank god it wasn’t us.
but we’re doing all right
for now. call me back when you get the chance.”
beep
“hey, i wanted to see how you’re all doing,
hope you’re staying safe and quarantined,
haven’t heard anything in a while.
i can’t see anything through the window
it’s all smoke. it’s crazy out here.
can’t even go outside,
can’t even breathe on the lawn.
they had to evacuate my daughter’s school last year
because of the wildfires, you know.
i can see the fire in the distance, through the window.
well, anyway, call me back.”
Reflection
This poem was inspired by messages and conversations between my parents and relatives or family friends. Many of these relatives and family friends have been heavily impacted by climate-change related natural disasters. Among them are old friends amid the Houston hurricanes, cousins living through droughts and forest fires in California, and aunts and uncles affected by flooding in India. Through the process of writing this poem, I discovered that there are many different ways that people experience climate change, and that we are all affected by it in some way or another, big or small. My research on climate change taught me that it often causes natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, etc. to have a more large-scale impact. This has been reflected in record-breaking disasters in recent years. One of my most prominent experiences with climate change has been hearing about what it’s done to people I care about and how it has changed their lives, and by association, mine.