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.