a trip to the beach

I dip my toe into the warm waters
the most beautiful place in the world
ocean waves, pure and rhythmic
I dive underwater and let them crash over me
the sounds of the earth and my body combining into one
I swim by troves of glimmering plastic
shiny decorations adorning the vibrant fish
I don’t recognize their cries for help
jetting by as they gasp for breath
my lungs begin to burn with a need for air
I surface above water, calm but relieved
the fish don’t have that luxury
they remain trapped, buried under bottles
choking on nets by no fault of their own
our discarded accessories drag them down
I go farther out from the shore
to discover a mound of trash, stacked above my head
a mini island, built by the careless humans of today
an unsustainable housing complex imposing on
nature: the uniquely breathtaking world as we knew it
but we continue to exploit the land
with our own ideas of what should reside upon it
I return to the beach twenty years later
a barren wasteland of pollution
it seems too quiet; the water and sky both tinged grey
the fish have died off, there is no clean water left
only trash; the unwanted remnants of our
selfish lifestyles have taken over our former
paradise, gone forever