1976
She stands at the edge of her world.
Tranquil and free,
Her hair billowing in a light breeze
As moonlight crowns her small head
And the dark blue waves whisper and roar
The scattered stars swim within them
And the purity of the moment envelops her
Leaving her in solitude
Alone with the mystic being called the ocean
Soon, this becomes her universe
Deep in thought,
The ocean helps her find peace
In the hardships she faced
During her few years of living
But, as she is admiring the loveliness of this moment...
It changes.
The landscape is the same,
But it’s all wrong
The light of the moon is wavering
A broken crown atop her fragile head
Shards of moon glass scraping her scalp
The ocean a flat gray,
Instead of it’s once deep blue
The rough sand is littered with trash
The beauty now coated in a layer of humanity
Omnipotent humanity
Prideful humanity
Corrupted humanity
Stripped of its glory
Shivering,
In absence of its once comforting softness
And she is forced to sit on a rock,
In order to protect her small feet
From the unnatural contaminants
Of this place she is now inhabiting
Her eyes open wide in shock
Where am I?
Is this what our species has become?
Is this the future in store for us?
But just as soon as it had changed,
Her surroundings go right back
To the way they were before
Back to the shimmering surface of a healthy ocean
Warm, soothing sands
Moonlight steadily beaming.
And though she should be relieved that this nightmare is over
The thought never leaves her alone,
Forever haunting her in her dreams.
2019
In the years to come,
She grows older
Gets a job, gets married, has children
She’s grown into a whole new person
Built a whole new life
And the very day,
That she goes back to her childhood home,
She returns to the same beach,
The same glorious ocean.
At least, she expects it to be the same...
But all she sees
Is the ravished world
The dead world
That she had taken a glimpse of
As a young girl
I guess it was true.
I also wrote this poem about ocean pollution for a school project. But, I submitted this one to the Bow Seat Ocean Awareness contest.