Exceptional stories, poems, and art by people ages 6–18
Since 1973
Poetry
Plastic Permanence
by Teddy Lykouretzos, age 13
Teddy Lykouretzos
The pyramids were made to remind people of a ruler
But now something lasts longer and can fit in a cooler.
Plastic is like a shapeshifting ooze.
An eternally flexible yet strong fuse
That is slowly burning to our explosive end.
Pennies to make,
Fortunes to break.
Made of the remnants of before
With a host of chemicals.
All for what, a vessel of soda?
We fear poison, but we create it.
Send it into our luscious waterways
And bury it in our merry earth.
We deny our extinction
But we kill ourselves.