After a photo documentary series by Mandy Baker depicting plastic debris.
“Soup” is a description given to plastic debris suspended in the ocean.
man-made soup carried by water and wind, spat
onto beaches – medical waste backdrop tapped, siphoned off—
syringes, condoms spent like party favors
celebratory rubbish for each new year—snake dragon
horse monkey, non-degradable annual revelry—
seahorse and elephant’s synthetic end sadder than the real thing—
Nature’s demise—a return, a breakdown cycle of life,
death, extinction, accelerated by our love for the throwaway—
tossed without ceremony—cluttered cemetery
of idealized coastlines—the fruits of our oil-based labor—
non-recyclable products of our collective desires,
landfill escapees nestling
into newfound niches—land and sea
embellished with artificial blooms—
their flowering time eternal
sea foam or polystyrene, the romance of salt and sea—
home of whale, salmon, coral reef or cod transformed—
these new denizens: non-action figures
more than meets the eye foregone conclusions
flung with childhood abandon into the depths of coastal dumps—
our road to infinity paved with disposable lighters—
mannequin hands shake on empty promises—
a toxic deal sealed in triplicate
what use medicinal debris, used IVs to a dying sea—
no bottled bleach cleans up after itself—
no tide scrubs clean these ocean floors.
This poem first appeared in You Break It You Buy It (2023).
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Lynn Tait is an award-winning poet/photographer residing in Sarnia, Ontario. She’s the author of the poetry collection You Break It You Buy It (Guernica Editions, 2023). Her poems have appeared in Contemporary Verse 2, Vallum, FreeFall, Literary Review of Canada, Quarantine Review, Prairie Fire, Anti-Heroin Chic, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Muleskinner Journal, Last Leaves, and in over 100 North American anthologies.
