This poem is about environmental concerns and ocean pollution.
Is it Plastic?
That
quivering see-through thing,
smushed
into the sand.
At
first glance, it looks
at
home
amongst
the plastic fork wrappings,
sea
glass,
bits
of driftwood, a cracked solo cup
and
three or so cigarette butts.
Belonging
to the wetness between
sand
and sea.
But
upon closer inspection,
it
becomes clear that this is not the case.
This
is a thing at odds with its
new
world.
Flopping
on the sand, thrust from the
sea
along with the rest,
it
lies.
In
the water it must have been
beautiful,
a soft-spoken
alien,
elegant and
lethal.
On
the sand it droops and begins to shrivel.
I
walk away and when I come back
it
has disappeared into the sea.
Leaving
only plastic behind, which can’t so easily
return.
Freya Alsop is a Final Year English Literature student based in Hampshire, UK. Contact Freya by email at freyaemilyalsop@gmail.com. Find her on Instagram at _freya_alsop_.