Claire Everett
Northallerton, North Yorkshire, England, UK

The Final Straw

Today's hot topic was vending-machine milk:

"Glass bottles. Surely that's a great initiative?"

"No, better still, ditch the dairy, you're not a baby cow."

"But cutting down on plastic, that's something achievable? Less radical. We can all play our part."

"Hmm. What better way to salve the conscience than fixating on the little things—those that we actually have some control over? While we're debating whether to bubble the dregs of our McFlurry through a stainless steel or silicon straw, we can ruminate on whether it's worth buying a pair of those trendy new trainers made from recycled soda bottles. Meanwhile there's a plastic slick floating in the Atlantic that's three times the size of France . . ."

a red squirrel
wearing the death-trap
of its final snack
while catwalk models strut
in see-through PVC

on Instagram
#beachbodyready . . .
in Okinawa
a hermit crab makes do
with a screw-top cap

so many friends
caught up in selfie filters
a photo reveals
what ghost fishing means
to a loggerhead turtle

a sea of sad emojis
and I too am borne away
on the current . . .
a seahorse with its tail
coiled around a Q-tip

custom jewelry
to hold a loved one's ashes . . .
I scroll past
to a garbage-dump stork
clad in plastic film

Author's Notes:

The images referenced are as follows:
red squirrel
crab
turtle
seahorse
white stork

For further reading: https://www.monbiot.com/2018/09/12/plastic-soup/