If you’ve ever seen what floats upon the gyre in the Pacific,
Then you know it spans the breadth of many island nations.
From within it’s really quite terrific:
Beads and bags and bottles, manmade aberrations,
Meant to spur conditioned need and yearning,
One time each, just once, motley to attract the eye
And trigger want so like an ache or burning,
Emptied soon, and rendered useless vessels, left to lie,
Till carried off by wind and weather
Finally to lodge, as bits of plastic smut,
Disguised by bill and feather,
In the noble albatross’s gut.
Stephen Fournier is a grandfather, a veteran, and retired attorney residing in Hartford, Connecticut. He is the author and publisher of Current Invective, an Internet newsletter.
Photo by Dan Clark/USFWS.
