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Friday, February 13, 2009

A Dream

I wake up and gulp water from my plastic water bottle, slip my feet into plastic slippers, and walk across the plastic floor to the plastic computer. I type a plastic message on my plastic keyboard and read news about plastic faces and plastic breasts. The baby is crying so I pop a plastic pacifier in her mouth and shake a plastic toy in her face before proceeding to my plastic shower with plastic containers of soaps and scrubs. I dry myself off and step onto the plastic scale, brush my plastics-straightened teeth with my plastic toothbrush. I apply plastic tubes of makeup to my not-so-plastic face and dry my hair with a plastic hairdryer. I bundle up in plastic clothes and ride my plastic bike to work, where I teach English on a plastic board with a plastic marker while sitting in a plastic chair. At the grocery store I buy crackers in individual plastic wrappers and plastic sponges and specific government plastic bags into which we throw our plastic garbage. I drop my purchases in a reusable-but-still-nylon/plastic bag and admire the wooden vinyl houses on my walk home in my plastic shoes. As the sun peeps through the smoggy plastic-polluted clouds, I stop and think to myself,

I'm melting.


I drop the the plastic bag with its plastic food and my plastic lenses fall from my melting face. I can see. My bubbling, brittle clothes shatter. I am free. I begin to run. I run to the the ends of the earth for one piece of soil that hasn't been raped by our plastic existence. I want to lay on the ground and make love to that one piece of Earth, to tell it that everything will be ok - that no one will exploit it for money or suck out its very essence to feed our gluttonous lifestyles. I want to say these things knowing they aren't true, because words are all I have now.

They aren't enough.

5 comments:

Tenessa said...

Don't forget to recycle.

Suzie said...

Yeah, the problem is only certain plastics are recyclable, and even recycling uses a lot of energy and releases a lot of toxins in the air. :(

Tenessa said...

I just throw all my plastics together. I asked my sister in law what she does with 5 and 6 and that's what she does... so I started doing that as well. But I understand what you are going through. I look around town where I teach, and all I see is trash on the streets.

Suzie said...

Japan is really picky about separating trash and recycling. We have 6 different kinds of garbage days, and if we sort it wrong or put the wrong trash out on the wrong day, they won't pick it up! Also, if they figure out who made the mistake, you can get fined! I complain about it a lot, but I actually think it's a good thing.

Aileena said...

Was this a real dream-or were you contemplating the ever plasticing fungus thats taking over our existence? Either way, it was quite poetic, and thought provoking. It's true that we cannot avoid all plastics. But we can certainly reduce, reduce, reduce. That is one of my major eco goals this year. I'm not ready to give up everything plastic I own. But I am doing lots of research into finding products with reusable or refillable containers, or more importantly, biodegradable packaging. You be amazed what comes in biodegradable packaging.