The Paper Sailboat

There once was a man with a paper sail,

Who went out to sea with a tale to tell,

He knew of the ocean’s great plight,

And set sail to try and make it right.

He soar above the crashing waves,

Tracing the wind’s path like a maze,

Each item he collected from the water,

He used to make his tiny sailboat broader.

What started out as a paper boat,

(that nobody thought would be able to float),

Became a spectacle of up-cycled garbage,

To try to mend the ocean of the littered carnage,

A plastic bottle turned into a telescope,

Gave the sea foam a sign of hope,

A turtle with a plastic ring around its flipper,

Was finally saved by this brave skipper.

He added the ring as extra line for the mast,

And smiled bitter-sweetly at the junk he had amassed.

He wondered how big his tiny boat would need to be,

To rid the ocean of all of its debris.

But these thoughts escaped him as quickly as they came,

Because there was more waste in the water to reclaim.

He wrote of his journey on his paper sail,

Listing the items he collected in great detail,

100 broken bottles of ale,

A fishing net caught on a whale,

He hoped his story would prevail,

So others could see the gruesome scale,

That the ocean was bearing each and every day.

He thought that by putting this monstrosity on display,

It would send the message he was trying to convey.

So was the man with the not so tiny paper boat really able to stay afloat?

Well that depends on whether or not you heed the words that he wrote.