our great garbage island,

floating plastic twice the size of Texas.

Forty coastal species now inhabit the debris,

a waste ecology’s Pacific nexus.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch,

all eighty-thousand tons,

is fed by folks on both sides of the ocean.

Its fishing nets and plastic bottles,

all sorts of our waste,

are swirled together by the ocean’s motion.

It could evolve a whole new species,

garbage-dwelling plants,

feeding clinging species in the drift.

Thank you, science, once again.

Apocalyptic dance

seems to be your one eternal gift.