What Have We Done
Flushing, NY
2016, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Whose Blue, Who’s Blue?
Go and I will follow.
As you reach out I will push you farther to the shore, with
you and I and so much more,
meeting our goal aimlessly, moving without a second thought.
Unafraid of the world beyond us, where other lives are caught; we
waves are set apart, making whole the system that we breathe.
We are free, untouched, but is that how we will always be?
Whose intentions are impure or have not even been formed?
Who can be indifferent to us waves, who give the ocean its form? Who
can deny us the peace from which we are now torn,
do you consider the harm in all you do or would you rather wait to see what it all comes to.
Whose blue is left to feel and love; who’s blue now that you’ve decided what’s enough.
Running Out of Vastness
Another one
Another one
Now more more more
Bring this manmade destruction beyond this shore
But if this oil doesn’t surge there’s no blood on our hands
And if it does, we still won’t budge; I’m just, you’re just a man
The only pay that will suffice the hunger in my mind
Is the flesh of helplessness beyond that surface line
Forget the means, forget the end, I’ll work and will die trying
Working to feed the greed within my stomach lining,
Give me more
Give me more
I’ll work and will die trying
We are Man
The voices of the victimized
Are muffled by the roaring cries
Of those whose success blinds their eyes
To all the torture devised
And set in motion with the flick of a finger
How so few can kill so many shows the error of man
The desire of one who holds the power trumps the countless, abundant like granules of sand
Compassion buried beneath the ocean floor, maybe that’s what they’re looking for
Are we evil, are we deliberate
Or are we unaware of the evil in it
We are man, formulated by particles
Bearing the almighty power passed down by the almighty God
But we claim lives, almost carelessly, awareness leaves and takes a backseat
Looking forward towards the driver, our improvident lives
Our improvident lives
We are Man, Pt.2
You can’t call it murder if it was suicidal
Like you can’t call it theft if it was already mine so,
Listen once, listen twice, if you really have to
This Earth is mine, so why’d I have to ask you
For permission to put living things in the condition of helplessness, hopelessness, and ultimate vulnerability
As if they’re my responsibility
I’m looking for my best interest but don’t call it villainy
Call it grind, hustle, making money diligently
It’s my life or theirs
Weigh that in your hands
Think about that when you see them washed up in the sand
Oil spills, pain, death it’s all the same thing
Who cares who dies, I just wanna make my bank account sing
From Me to You
From the beginning you used me
Can i say abused? No not yet
But you needed me to find yourself, yes, oh that
Now you remember, that with my back I carried you from shore to shore
In 1492 Columbus sailed the me blue
More needed me too
For my minerals, vast richness that’s less and less appreciated
Once the subject of poetry now I am only infiltrated
The love grows cold among each other, and it has for me too
Break me down, then pick me up, I guess that’s just what Humans do
Before you leave me barren there’s one thing you must do
Know the sorrows of my heart, a broken message from me to you
Reflection
Hi. I’m Katherine Aybar and I recently took the AP Environmental course offered to me in my High School. It wasn’t my first elective choice, it actually wasn’t one of my choices at all, but, of course, I’m glad I could take it. I spent the majority of my life discussing human history: triumphs and huge downfalls; and I have witnessed the rising and decay of many institutions throughout the world. However, we never bothered to discuss the history of the world’s greatest constant: the Earth itself. We hear of the occasional meteor or how hot it is for winter, but we shrug it off because it doesn’t concern us enough. If it’s not directly hurting us, we tend to leave it to be an issue of tomorrow rather than deal with it now. I feel that we have become a people more focused on treatment than prevention, happily procrastinating and forgetting the danger waiting for them. I’m young so often times I feel like there’s nothing I can do to help prevent pollution of all forms: air, freshwater, and ocean. However, this contest has given me the opportunity to at least vent and express my frustration and the sorrow I hold for the ocean and everything within it, that is subject to what we may do to it, how we may alter its natural state. I can only hope that we realize what damage we have caused before we do something completely irreversible.