‘Waste’ – World Animal Day Poem 2016
Susan Richardson is World Animal Day’s poet-in-residence and in this specially-commissioned poem for World Animal Day 2016, she turns her attention to the critical global issue of ocean debris and the injuries/deaths suffered by marine creatures, including leatherback turtles, when they become entangled in discarded fishing nets (known as ‘ghost gear’) or ingest plastic rubbish that they mistake for prey.
The turtle image was created by visual artist Pat Gregory, with whom Susan has previously collaborated on several published collections of poetry and art. At the bottom of the page you can click on the link to hear Susan reciting ‘Waste’.
WASTE
1. Net
The Ghost of Fishing Past has failed
to fade.
It will haunt degradable dreams
for decade after leathery decade.
The Ghost of Fishing Present
is not the one doing the moaning.
What you hear is the sound
of a thousand gouged flippers.
Mangled skin. Tangled necks.
Flexible shells yelling for protection.
The Ghost of Fishing Yet to Come
nets every ocean current and tide.
Entire gyres are trapped.
Waves writhe and thrash
as the sea sinks
to the bottom of itself.
2. Bag
Her prey migrates
from chip shop
and Tesco
from High Street
and suburb from
windgust and
gutter from
fly-tip and
river from
storm drain
and foreshore
from shallows
and deeps
till it reaches
the pelagic zone,
her home
in the open sea.
As it floats
past, she grabs
it, drags it
down her
barbed throat,
adds it to
a gut already
stuffed with
polyethylene.
Meanwhile,
near to
the surface,
genuine jellyfish
themselves ingest
plastic plankton.