Pollution
We live in a throw away society,
Polluted with the idea of if you can’t see the problem,
Then it doesn’t exist.
Our landfills are more populated by litter than our national parks are by visitors
Garbage bins are more common than gardens.
Bullying the earth into toxic oblivion isn’t a way to live.
We no longer know how to fix things,
Instead we go about ignoring the complication,
Impurifying it further.
People have no problem with shattering objects
Because we have no intentions of putting them back together.
We don’t have the patience it takes to fully mend something,
Especially if that something is as complicated as a human being.
Today’s bullies are more psychological than physical
Commonly throwing digs rather than fists.
After spending seven years in school with girls who hid their gossip behind whispers
I learned a bruise many only last a week but slurs travel to the brain in polluted rivers of sludge
And embed themselves like abandoned landmines;
Tread carefully when critiquing appearances or grades or weight
It is easier to break than it is to repair
And when a person is broken, the cracks often aren’t so visible
People don’t take the time to look closely.
Global warming and ozone pollution
Have been swept under the carpet by politicians
Saying “Oh, that’s nature. It’ll fix itself”
How many times have parents like mine told their children that teenage depression
Is something everyone goes through?
That they’ll just grow out of it.
Its natural?
Refusing to validate a real problem never fixes it
The pollution always grows,
Hateful words smoulder inside like smokestacks
Depression clouds like smog
Arms become scarred like strip-mined mountains
Once bright eyes mimic ocean dead zones
But people aren’t meant to be landfills.
We can’t be thrown away like tea cups and China
Even though we break just as easily.
Why can’t we recycle our feelings
And reuse the beautiful things we say to each other
So that even in moments of silence
There can be clear rivers that flow from eyes
Undiluted by chemical imbalances
And white healing wounds like daisy feilds after mountaintop removal
Pollution doesn’t have to be destruction
Even nuclear meltdowns can be watered and grown back into forests
There is always hope to save those who need it most
And sunshine to drive away corrosive rains
So don’t let those greenhouse gases build up inside
Don’t let words litter the purest image of yourself
Strength comes in forms small and wide
So reach out an arm and let someone grab you
Or offer a smile when you see smog colored bags underneath someone’s eyes
You are smart and kind and beautiful and important
You are all of Mother Nature’s wonder bundled up into a precious package
You are rainforests because of the way that you cry
And Everest because of your endurance
Even mountains become worn down over time
But the grit removed from granite is washed onto beaches with beautiful sunsets
And preserving all things beautiful
Is what environmentalism is all about.