Rebellious Green Writing – ‘Militant Seagulls’ 16th March 2013

Until this wasteful system of profit and exploitation is ended, such suffering will endure.

Poem inspired by the above video, written at a poetry workshop with Lydia Towsey and Tim Sayers.

The Curse Of the Albatross

Wanderers of the seas
Mistake our plastics for food.
If only they could understand.

Instinctive – the chicks’ beaks
Plaintive, upheld,
Call for vital sustenance.

Instead – the head of a
Long-forgotten toothbrush,
The hand of a child’s doll.

Flotsam and jetsam of modern life,
Bought to stifle
Clamouring cries of our own offspring,
Impatient for the latest fad.

Many miles from the city,
Our rubbish is transported,
Washed out to sea.
Tragic circles of plastic debris,

Gathered in the gullets and the gizzards of the gulls.
Inscribed by fragile feathers,
Bones of wings that never had a chance
To exult on the soar of an updraft.

Tags: albatross, environment, midway, plastic