I recall from some time ago
a pink plastic tea set
a white plastic rocking chair
and a yellow plastic pony
with blue plastic hair,
     which
was impossible to untangle
except for with the green plastic brush
that belonged to my blonde barbie doll
out of her plastic vanity cabinet
beneath her plastic vanity mirror,
     which
she checked her makeup in
before meeting her plastic boyfriend
in his plastic van
to go to a plastic diner
that served plastic pizza,
     which
was really just a sticker
on a tiny plastic plate
that would get lost in the bottom
of my plastic toybox,
     which
had a plastic lid
that was also my sailboat
that brought me to a plastic castle
with a plastic princess
who had the prettiest plastic eyes
and the most elaborate plastic dress
and the shiniest plastic crown,
     which
was the envy of all the plastic women
in the entire plastic kingdom,
     which
was really just a plastic castle
surrounded by an enchanted plastic forest
filled with furry plastic creatures
all atop a clear plastic box,
     which
held the plastic dishes
and plastic glasses
and plastic food
in case a feast should be thrown
for an unexpected plastic guest
from a plastic kingdom in the far east,
     which
was really just a plastic plate
placed on the plastic-coated windowsill,
     from which
I would peer into the blue sky
through broken plastic binoculars
while standing on a yellow and green plastic step stool,
     which
when turned upside down
became not simply a make-shift plastic sailboat,
but a glorious, luxury plastic cruise liner
for my pretty plastic dolls

     and I would board my toybox lid
     and we would sail into a perfect plastic horizon

     which
was really just a white plastic baby gate
that kept me from tumbling
into the world downstairs
where things are wooden
and glass
and cloth
but not plastic

for plastic is synthetic
and plastic is superficial
and plastic looks bad
against gilded wallpaper

but plastic is cheaper
and plastic is safer
and plastic is durable
and childhood is plastic

As Fish swam
It met a strange piece of plastic
Afloat above the surface
That seemed to curve slightly beneath the water
Fish swam to it
Despite the fear
And the piece of plastic didn’t move
So Fish became intrigued
And it swam to its center
Poking at it with its flat eyes
Days went on
And Fish rested with the plastic
Feeling at peace with it
And so it became Plastic
And Fish stayed friendly with Plastic
No matter how much bigger or different it was
Fish spoke to Plastic nonetheless
It felt dependent on it
It felt comfortable and happy
Something that Fish had not felt from its cold lake surrounding it
Until
One fatal day
Plastic dashed
Almost parting the water of the lake
Too fast for Fish to swim after it
And as it went to catch its friend
Fish started to feel things it had felt before
And it felt betrayed
Alone
As if it had wasted time
On a simple piece of plastic
So it swam until it couldn’t anymore for Plastic
And soon stopped and tried to forget about Plastic
Fish finally went back home
Lonesome days went by
Fish went on with its life
Struggling to feel content with what it was doing
On its own
Until one fatal day
Fish left its home
And saw a piece of plastic
The same piece of plastic it remembered
But it was a little different
With more scratches and some seaweed attached to it
So now Fish swam towards Plastic excitedly
And swam to the surface when it reached Plastic
And looked above the water
And saw that Plastic had long sails
Ropes attached
And it looked so slick and modern
It was massive too
Fish swam back down
It saw so much more of Plastic
So much more than Fish had never imagined
Which set them apart even more
Which made them so much more different
So Fish never went close to Plastic again
It still felt betrayal
Even more afraid now
And remembered the days that followed Plastic's sudden leave
Like a sharp knife to its tiny, beating heart
Because Plastic grew up and different
And Plastic reminded Fish of many things
Like misunderstanding
Like disappointment
And it didn’t want to feel like that ever again
So it never went close to Plastic again
It never left again
But it felt... distant
And it was painful to wonder what Plastic and Fish could have done together
And so Fish tried once more
And Plastic seemed pleased
For it did not move
And so Fish tried once more
And this time it felt something
A strange tension between the two
But then
That night
In confusion of whether the feeling was good or not
Fish remembered how much it hurt
To be left by Plastic
To be alone again
So suddenly
And it felt afraid that Plastic might not be as happy to be around Fish as Fish was to be around Plastic
And now Fish waits for Plastic to see through the litter in the lake
And finally dash for Fish

get me a plastic girl,
and i'll sing to her my plastic words
i'll giver her the plastic world

and we'll live in a plastic house
with a plastic cat and a plastic mouse
a plastic heart for a plastic mouth

plastic inside, and plastic out
an elastic skin for a fancy crowd

a plastic window and a plastic couch
where i'll sit alone with my plastic doubts

watching the plastic rain cold and loud
drinking away the plastic south

filling myself with that plastic asteroid
i hear a plastic voice and black plastic joy

i have a plastic sorrow and my plastic toys
there's no tomorrow just this plastic void

can you see the smile and my plastic poise
painted classic pink on my plastic floyd

plastic me in this plastic noise,
a plastic droid.

©writeweird

With each new holiday,
we are told to purchase,
fake plastic memories
for a fake plastic purpose.

Fake Plastic trees
for Christmas to usher.
Fake Plastic hearts
for Valentine's lovers.

Fake Plastic wreaths
for a New Year’s front door.
Fake Plastic pumpkins
for Halloween decor.

For Easter we have
fake plastic eggs
and fake plastic grass
fake plastic time, for us to pass.

Now we have plastic oceans
and plastic rain.
plastic forests
and plastic terrains.

Plastic is what the fish and whales feast on.
Plastic is what we base our economy on.

Plastic plates with plastic silverware,
Plastic here, plastic everywhere.

A fake plastic earth will be forming soon.
With a fake plastic sun and fake plastic moon

~Many people rely on the convenient, easy ways of living in this age of fast food, plastic packaging and rapid development. Most people do not care to see why they live the way they do or what it takes to live in such a way. Toxic pollutants leaching into our earth and water should not be worth the convenience! Third world women working in dusty, cramped factories to make designer purses for fifteen year old girls. Garbage is America’s biggest export and it ends up in China, on the coast of Somalia... anywhere that American citizens won’t be bothered to see it.

~What does it mean to buy a pack of plastic razors? Some metal, some chemicals, some plastic, more plastic for packaging. Use a razor a few times and toss it in the garbage. Somewhere, maybe at La Chureca, someone will pull the rusted metal and plastic from the landfill. They might make one US dollar per day collecting scraps of aluminum, glass, plastic and other scrap metals. What does it mean to wear deodorant? The plastic stick isn’t reusable. The ingredients are highly toxic. Aluminum-based antiperspirants have been linked to Alzheimer's and cancer. Soap comes in plastic bottles, coffee makers made of plastic, water bottles made of plastic… hell, my plastic shower curtain came wrapped in plastic packaging.

~Americans are lucky. Indoor plumbing with quality water. Green lawns and exotic flower beds. Buy and use, throw away and repeat. Big corporations pay off politicians to pollute. Industrial waste, land erosion, low air quality, pesticides. Why are we so quick to trust an artificial sweetener being promoted by a company that makes poison? They call you a hippy, a conspiracy theorist. They tell you that you only live once and to stop being so worried about it all. I ask them, how can you look away? Deforestation and destruction are all around. Those that profit are not concerned with what happens to the land after the loggers and miners have left the ground scarred and desolate.

~Modern living is a hoax. Yeah, you get around quick in your car but at what cost? Carbon dioxide, greenhouse gasses choking us and everything alive that lives with us and cannot speak. Can’t you walk to the corner store? Can’t you grow a few things in the garden or in the windowsill? When was the last time you saw a sunset and didn’t take a picture of it? Dairy cows packed together so tight they can’t turn around for your glass of milk. The disconnect is everywhere. Overpopulation. Overconsumption. People don’t care.

~They can choose. They can choose paper over plastic. They can buy a water filter instead of 20 plastic bottles. They can bike to work. Anyone can lessen their impact, anyone can think more deeply and live more sustainably. But we’ve made it so easy to be lazy. We’ve become so dependent that we’re forgetting to use technological gains to make the way we do things better. We’ve come so far that we’re forgetting what brought us here.

~

‘We are slaves in the sense that we depend for our daily survival upon an expand-or-expire agro-industrial empire – a crackpot machine – that the specialists cannot comprehend and the managers cannot manage. Which is, furthermore, devouring world resources at an exponential rate.’ Edward Abbey

‘In the developing world, the problem of population is seen less as a matter of human numbers than of western overconsumption. Yet within the development community, the only solution to the problems of the developing world is to export the same unsustainable economic model fuelling the overconsumption of the West.’ Kavita Ramdas

‘Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.’ Jacques-Yves Cousteau

‘Globalisation, which attempts to amalgamate every local, regional, and national economy into a single world system, requires homogenising locally adapted forms of agriculture, replacing them with an industrial system – centrally managed, pesticide-intensive, one-crop production for export – designed to deliver a narrow range of transportable foods to the world market.’Helena Norberg-Hodge

‘Throughout history human exploitation of the earth has produced this progression: colonise-destroy-move on.’ Garrett Hardin

Plastic engineering
quite fantastic
so endearing.

But we make no bones
you can't live lives
in plastic homes
eat plastic bread
drink plastic tea
plastic honey's not
for me.

Let's try and be
the reality
we look to find
but seldom see.

If I take the fall or give
up hope and hang myself
with a plastic rope
how would it look in
years to come
when an archaeologist
(From Lancashire)
says,
'eeh by gum
I've never seen the like before,
plastic face, plastic eyes, plastic ears and plastic jaw'
and you're wondering what all this plastic's for,
but you're not alone, not on your own
there's lot more in their plastic home
thinking the same.

It's all in the name
if they'd called plastic, gold,
we'd all have been sold on
the idea.

Built plastic houses
in plastic lives
With plastic wives
And plastic knives
For safety
Safely snoogled in a lie
Cannot cry when its gone
Yet i try
With plastic tears
And plastic faces
Plastic years
And premade places
To visit
From plastic spaces
In my heart
In plastic pains
From plastic drains
Of my plastic dreams
With Elastic seams
Stretching the view
We all knew
To be real
Once
In plastic poetry