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when the ocean forgets to be blue
 
dorsía smith silva

It begins with the waves:

overcrowded with floating plastic water bottles

and six-pack soda rings,

coating all that is familiar in this blue liquid.

Far below, there are blackened blobs of baby wipes,

mangled plastic forks and spoons, and loaded layers of red-striped drinking straws.

How they branch into new sea figures,

swimming with the muscled trash bags and Styrofoam cups.

It is as though the ocean is claiming all of the abandoned particles:

pushing through this unnatural achievement,

merging into the greater living darkness,

while we silently watch.

Dorsía Smith Silva is a Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. Her poetry has been published in several journals and magazines in the United States and the Caribbean, including New Reader Magazine, Portland Review, Rock & Sling, Heartwood Literary Review, Stoneboat, Misfit Magazine, Nassau Review, Shot Glass, and POUI: Cave Hill Journal of Creative Writing. She is also the editor of Latina/Chicana Mothering and the co-editor of six books.

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