Let us return to the beginning, O Great OceanYou have endured as much sufferingAs a mother whose wayward offspring Walk in disobedience, heads held high, recklessYou call in a voice carried as far as the windsBut no one hears your distressOr witnesses the toxic tearsPrompted by the ships’ forever lingering crude oil“My children, someone please help my dying children!”You weep, wail, and gnash your teeth as you writhe in agony At the hideous spectacle of suffocating fishWithering plants, and the overgrowth of algaeYou fear that these dead zones will soonBe the fate of your whole body Let us return to the beginning, O Great OceanWhen your supply of oxygen, now lowered by the presence of sewage Was sustainable for the creatures that resided within youBefore you were beset by fevers that cost the lives of your marine animalsBefore fertilizers, petroleum, and pesticides—those villainous fiends Crept into your vast beauty, sometimes aided by floodsAnd degraded your reputation, crippling youDebris, plastic, and trash cling to your hairNow matted and tangledPlastic, like a virus never decomposes, but remains in your systemYour fish, seals, whales, and many more sacrifice their lives to preserve your majestyThese heroes are choked, snagged, and harassed by the vicious litterSome bravely consume the plasticAnd no one honors their valor by caring to prevent those sacrificial acts  Let us return to the beginning, O Great OceanTo the goddess that you wereAssuredly, you deserve better than thisTo be clothed in rays of sunlight, Not drenched in oilWhich mercilessly preventsThe plants of the sea from receiving their daily doses of nutrientsBy halting photosynthesis from occurringBirds naively rest upon your oil-covered bodyResulting in heavy feathersSharks innocently beg to breatheBut are in turn, rudely slapped with oil on their gillsHumans, destructive progeny that we are, greedily mine for copper and gold, increasing your toxic levels and hampering with life cycles  Let us return to the beginning, O Great OceanBefore your illness stretched across the worldRunoff from rains, unknowingly traveled to the other parts of your bodyLitter, that had misplaced its compassFreely meandered farther than you wished it toYour smaller children, foolishly stuck chemicals in their mouthsAnd as the food chain goes, were eaten by predators that were bigger than theyHumans killed those diseased beings of the sea for foodAnd fell ill themselves The deadliness of chemicals does not discriminate Between the sons and daughters of the worldAll are subjected to its harsh wrathWhich accumulates in people's bodiesAnd punches away at their health  Let us return to the beginning, O Great OceanYou cradle God’s tearsHoliness tainted by your unclean templeWhich is by no fault of your ownAs a helpful daughter, I pick the specks of litterThat have made their way into your bounding mainBecause I have not turned a blind eye To your unusually dark depthsWith oil bubbles floating at the topTo the pictures of sea lions being strangled by plastic lassosLarge black eyes wistfully questioning humanity’s intentions Or to the unfamiliar, burning that persists in my throatAfter accidentally drinking your toxic watersWhile going for a swim Let us return to the beginning, O Great OceanWhen you did not need the assistance of the EPA Now, in order to save your children,The Endangered Species Act subjects You to check ups in order to observe the impact of pesticides on your creaturesInitiatives, like the Clean Water Act Seek to lower metal concentrations in your waters by testing sewage I must remind you, O Powerful SeaThat not all of your children are insubordinateNot all of us are carelessly shoving poison into your mouthNot all of us will stand by as observers at an unfair boxing match Some, like myself were just born too late, when the damage was already doneHowever, my covenant to you is to ferociously avert further harm inflicted upon youLet me help you return to the beginning O, Great Ocean