Plastic girl

I am part plastic. Everything under my left knee is plastic, helping me to walk, work in the house or going to the beach.

The beach.

A little place somewhere in Cambodia. It's so tiny that there isn't a name for it. Yet, I visit the place every day, mostly in the morning. At some part it is an obsession. I just cannot stop going there and collect the endless amounts of plastic.

Yeah, plastic. It is quite ironic to hate the material which improves my live. But when this same material also kills, it is enough reason to have a grudge. At some point, I am one with the sea animals it kills. We all have plastic in our bodies. And yet, they died while the plastic helps me to walk.

Leaving the house, I snatch my usual sack and go to the beach. I wonder what the waves will throw at the shore today. Plastic cutlery? Plastic bags? Water bottles? I just know there will be a lot of junk, mostly from the tourists.

The white sand is crunching under my feet as I bend down carefully to take the first find: a used syringe, probably left by some junkie. Just the thought that kids like to play here makes me shudder. Another steps away flutters an empty plastic bag. It may seem less as dangerous than the syringe. But thats wrong. Animals often mistook it as a jelly fish. It would block the stomach and lead to slow starvation.
A death I wouldn't even wish my worst enemies. The birds were all innocent. So why would they have to die?

I quickly snatch it in my sack and continue to collect the other junk: dozens of bottles, a piece of a camera, a soother and a broken plastic fork.

In the water is even more, accompanied by a dead fish. Its glassy eyes are focused at the orange sky while its body is swaying with the waves.

I wonder how the fish died. Was it oil in his veins from some of these shady oil platforms? Plastic in its stomach like some bird I found or simply no food? I did not pick it up. The ocean had been its home after all. I will not take that away.

I often wonder why the ocean ended up like this. It gave birth to all forms of live, stores carbon and provides us with food.

And yet we are killing it.
Killing us.

Yeah, humans are stupid. Their greedy dreams to have everything. The ocean is not a bath tub whose water and life can be easily replaced. But humans tend to ignore that. They rather live in their own cozy dream bubble.

I just can hope that one day-
One day they'll see outside that bubble and take action.

Until then I will be that weird plastic girl on the beach.