Where the Skyline Meets the Mountains

Driving home, nine at night.

I look up to stare at the stars,

But I can't tell the difference between the stars and satellites.

What a sad time,

Where the stars are merely a background for our pathetic "future"

I try to find the horizon,

But the lights littering the mountains make it hard to find it.

I search, my eyes growing tired,

My mind is growing impatient.

How upsetting it is, I can't even determine the skyline from the land.

Watching the news in class today,

And yet another story on the effects of air pollution.

The fog takes over the landscape,

And I can't imagine that this is the world now.

Starving nature of the safety it deserves.

My dad showed me photos of our summer cabin,

The many trees previously surrounding it, gone.

I felt like crying.

The thing that made that place so beautiful, magical

Gone in a matter of hours.

Amelia was crying the other day after seeing a video.

A polar bear dying from the lack of ice.

Poor thing, I said,

Thinking about the evil creatures that caused that.

I laugh, knowing that it's everyone I love.

I love the way the sea brushes the shore in New York,

But I know how dirty and polluted my favored water is,

filled with trash and abandoned hopes,

because after all, it's New York,

Concrete jungle, where all the manufactured, fake dreams are made of.

I did countless projects on sea animals and deforestation in fourth grade,

I was so passionate about trees being cut down and turtles dying

It hurts,

Because I barely understood what this sad world was coming to.

Now I know how stupidly serious this all is.

Driving through my hometown,

I see a bright red plastic bag in the beautiful yellowing trees.

I think of the time my second-grade teacher told me that every single bit of undisposed plastic,

Every piece will always find its way to the ocean,

And the younger me thought that was kinda cool…

Part of me wants to end all of the pain we cause the world,

The Earth doesn't deserve that,

But I know that I will continue to cause it,

Because everyone's daily lives revolve around different variations of plastic.

Phones, cars, bicycles, straws, everything is plastic.

Even people, for God's sake,

Are turning themselves plastic.

What kind of world are we living in?

I mean, I can't be talking, since I use a similar amount of plastic to any average person,

But why have we let it come this far?

Places are dealing with unsafe breathing conditions due to smog

Factories emit so many chemicals and so much waste that we breathe in without a second thought.

It causes so much trouble for our health, 

But we barely even notice it.

We should've stopped this when we had the chance.

We have grown dependent on this life of plastic and chemicals,

There is no stopping it at this point.

I pity those who think everything is fine,

Because they are living in denial and oblivion.

So what if ending this abuse was as easy as ending our monthly subscription magazine,

A useless use of wood

Destroying ecosystems and so much more.

Some of us don't even think twice about it.

How can we end it then?

That is a question you must find the answer to on your own,

Understand that there is so much we need to save.

Please,

End this, and make a change.