The Sargasso Sea

In my childhood they wrote
of a mysterious hush on the wind
a still in the current
a murky graveyard
delicious with tangled mystery
a dark romance on the enigmatic sea.

The Sargasso Sea
a great morass
like a clog of seaweed,
long knots of hair in the ocean’s drain
miles of wreckage and fish nets,
hulks still afloat, haunted rustles and spirits
grinding, moaning on the fog.

—

Tonight my child will just stare at me
shake her head, turning back to the screen,
at the toxins we throw at the sea.
Rivers… sewers spewing our untreated shit,
pesticides, fungicides, and heavy metal waste,
mercury and creosote
slipping over our bellies
as we mindlessly wade and play in the sea.

I will stare back at my child
angry at what I see on her screen,
ashamed for our generations
speechless to explain their abuse,
unable to defend these corporations
these vacuous men at their helm
their feckless apathy.

Not a sluggish island of miles in the north Atlantic,
now a mass that rivals the area of countries
Dupont, Dow, and Exxon’s children
their carbon footprints at work
plastics in every conjured shape
bottles, coolers, every imagined bag
or container scrap
amongst the diapers and wrappers
of edamame’ and sweet snow peas…
all natural - wink
in harmony with nature
good for you - smirk
better living through chemistry
eat up… discard,
enjoy your plastic soup.