The Little Mermaid shimmers and sings

Floating upon the surface

A new species of Jellyfish?

Inquisitive Mermaid swims up the water column

Feeling the rays of sun kiss her shoulders and cheeks

To her curiosity the odd jelly was not alive

A limp piece of translucent material

Migrating towards the center of a gyre

To The Little Mermaid's dismay a friendly sea turtle was nibbling on this non biodegradable material

Scuttling to collect scraps and bits of single use utensils, plastic bottles, and plastic bags

The Little Mermaid swam back to the kingdom

Presented her findings to her mighty father

Poseidon

 

A look of anguish

These are not the usual treasures which my eyes adore

The Kingdom has heard of humans

Inhabiting lands far and wide

Producing plastic conveniences

Only to throw away after mere minutes have passed

Although the valleys weep in sorrow and vain

The rivers carry waste into our home

 

We must fear what are eyes cannot see

MICROPLASTICS

Broken down plastic smaller than the grains of sand on our ocean floor

Magnets for toxic chemicals

A Singular microplastic

One million times more toxic than the water around it

The fish ingest microplastics

We ingest the fish

We eat the consequences of human waste

 

Evil Ursula Octopus

Laughs Laughs Laughs

Foolish humans

Sababotting plentiful oceanic ecosystems

The ocean will never recover

Plastic will outlive us all

 

Hopeful Mermaid holds faith and hope in her heart

She will advocate for the tides of action to turn

The problem is on land

The effect is being felt in the sea

The solution for The Little Mermaid is to emerge on land

Transform her tail into legs

Transform herself into an environmental activist

Spreading the word about morbidly changing life under the sea

Great alarm arises

Humans ask how can they help?

 

The source of the problem

Becomes the source of the solution

Together humans eliminated their production of single use plastic

Reducing plastic production 50%

Reusable utensils

Reusable water bottles

Reusable bags

Everywhere they go

Readily at hand

The Little Mermaid and all her under the sea friends thank the humans  

A clean home for all