“Self Portrait” by Katie McDowell (18), New Orleans Center for Creative Arts "An Old Man in Military Costume" by Simone Wuttke (18), Dartmouth College (recent Benjamin Franklin High School graduate) "This oil on canvas painting is inspired by Rembrandt's 'An Old...
Sirens Are Blaring, and I Know You Aren’t Deaf
By MEREDITH DELONG
If climate change is such a charade,
If my generation has lost its mind,
Let me show you a mermaid
Who dared eat her decayed
Scales when there was no food left to find.
If climate change is such a charade,
Why is her once-luscious green braid bleached?
Why maintain this frame of mind?
Let me show you a mermaid
Driven from whitewashed reefs and afraid.
She won’t find shelter ‘til the temperature’s declined.
If climate change is such a charade,
Why is she too bloated, too swollen to wade
Beyond toxic dead zones? We left her behind.
Let me show you a mermaid
Who chokes on bile trying to serenade
Without oxygen, who’s already gone blind.
If climate change is such a charade,
Let me show you a mermaid.
Meredith DeLong is a freshman and creative writing student at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. An avid cat lady, consumer of copious literature, and overuser of em dashes, she enjoys writing short prose and dabbling in poetry.