Our garbage travels far
across the ocean,
floating on the current
to the tiny atoll of Midway,
dead in the middle
of the Pacific Ocean .
Our throw-away culture,
where everything
is disposable,
impacts the inhabitants,
killing many thousands
of albatross chicks
after they eat chunks
of our plastics that
they mistake for food
that we just toss
away without a worry
of where it might end up,
tossed away after
being used only once;
if only we could all
bear witness firsthand
those baby birds
flapping around,
gagging as they choke
to finally flop down dead
on the sandy beach
to quickly decompose
due to the heat,
the rain, and the insects,
thousands of dead birds
litter the beautiful beach,
their decomposed feathers
and the eaten plastics
are all that remains…
Charles Portolano lives in Fountain Hills , AZ. He started writing poetry 14 years ago to celebrate the birth of his daring, darling, daughter Valerie. He wanted to preserve all the memories of the first time she walked, talked. Valerie was born with many obstacles to overcome giving him much to write about. Writing soon became his way of saving his sanity. Valerie is doing great now; she is quite the young writer. This year he has been published in The Clark Street Review, Plato’s Tavern, Poetswest, Nomad’s Choir, Bellowing Ark, PKA’s Advocate, Pegasus, The Saturday Diner, The American Dissident, The Pink Chameleon, The Back Street Review, The Storyteller, and Soundings Review. He has a new collection of poetry out, Storytelling.
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