Student Voices - #7

And this time, some poetry from Ms. Jalessa Peters

Black Tears

Mass destruction as everyone screams

Frantically searching, crying for their families.

The water swallowed the entire city

Everything gone, damaged, or hurt; such a pity.

The snow- capped mountains became acrid land

The green Pasteur’s became desert sand.

All because of the world’s carbon emission

I watched everything go wrong because we did no listen.

 

All I could do was cry and cry

I couldn’t find my find my mother, and I knew I was going to die.

The earth was no longer a safe place

Natural disasters and climate change had won the race.

I couldn’t believe this was how it will all end

Pain on little children’s faces looking for those on who they depend.

I couldn’t move paralyzed with fear

Wishing I had learned to swim last year.

 

No food, no family, and no place to live

As I called on God, the agony grew massive.

I stood still, afraid to even blink.

Everything went blank, even afraid to think.

Watching buildings and homes fall to the ground,

Crushing others swimming by, I didn’t make a sound.

We did this! We did it to ourselves

As hurricanes joined in and wiped us off like dolls on shelves.

 

I could hear my heart beating a 1000 miles per minute

All the talk about global warming, and I never thought I’d live to be in it.

Tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, and deadly diseases,

Animal distinction, hurricanes, firers, anytime the earth pleases.

I never got to meet the man of my dreams

Or have a baby, or my own family, because my life was now cut at the seams.

I will no longer be able to finish college

Reality was hitting me and it was time to acknowledge.

This was it! What a way to go.

I slid down to the floor as the tears begun to flow.

Closed my eyes because I no longer wanted to see,

That this was going to be the end for me.

 

I woke up alone and in the dark.

I listened for my dog, but I couldn’t hear his bark.

I called for my mother, but this morning she did not answer.

So I sat in my bed, silent, hoping it would all register.

Maybe everyone went out to the mall, took a drive to the lake,

Or went to play some ball.

I looked out my window and it was all okay,

It was a sigh of relief as I must say.

But now you know the story, of the nightmare that changed my life,

The truth I was ignoring had stabbed me like a knife.

So I stand before you at this COP meeting.

If we work together we can stop this world from overheating.