a mirror poem
by Elise Kazanjian
What were we all thinking?
An abandoned fishing boat toothbrushes
six tons of gill nets toys lawn chairs plastic
containers a three and a half ton mysterious object twenty
feet wide six feet high shoes millions miniscule plastic waste bits trawling
booms plastic rods tires huge foam buoys stewing in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch three
times the size of France growing every day in 2009 the non-profit Ocean Voyages
Institute’s 132-foot sailing cargo ship begins removing plastics from the ocean
many of us move mouths jaw about oceans threatened oceans that give
life to all creatures oceans once polluted can not be salvaged
What were we all thinking?
What are we all thinking?
The oceans once polluted can not be salvaged so many creatures
humans given life many of us move mouths jaw about oceans threatened
in 2009 the non-profit Ocean Voyages Institute’s132-foot sailing cargo ship
begins removing plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch three times
the size of France growing every day millions miniscule plastic waste bits trawling
booms plastic rods tires marine debris stewing with lawn chairs
plastic containers a three and a half ton mysterious object twenty
feet wide six feet high shoes toothbrushes six tons
of gill nets toys an abandoned fishing boat
What were we all thinking?
Elise Kazanjian’s poems have appeared in Fog & Light: San Francisco Seen Through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here 2021; the Marin Poetry Center Anthology 2022, and others. She was Foreign Editor, CCTV, Beijing; has been a San Francisco pawnbroker; and is Co-Judge, Prose Poem, Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition.