Plastic Peregrination

     The hot sun reflecting off of the cerulean water was enough to make you melt. A man no older than 50 but no younger than 45 dug in his ear canal with a simple q-tip. He presumably got what he wanted and discarded of the q-tip by throwing it into the open ocean. The bellowing smoke from the cruise ship filled the air as the litterer sat back in his chair and looked out to the vast sea. The q-tip however, landed in water full of plastic and bottles. The debris landed in the soft coral reef, causing sediments to fly in the salty water. Fish swam by as some coral was decimated by some heavy clutter and fish scrambled away. Soft currents blew through the area as some trash was picked up and flown across the water. The remaining trash causing the coral reef to wilt and turn grey. 

     The trash swam throughout the current as sea turtles and other fish tried to avoid it.  A turtle biting into the plastic was quickly dead as more and more plastic surrounded the reptiles. The q-tip flowing past them and landed into a soft area of kelp. A young  sea horse spotting the q-tip and grasping onto it like it was it's mother. It found the q-tip was to heavy to carry and quickly dropping it. It landed onto a Granny Smith Apple colored kelp leaf. A young kelp dragon appeared and watched the q-tip land on it's humble abode. It quickly leaped away from the long stalk and left the q-tip all by itself. 

     The q-tip was abandoned on the light green leaf for a few years. Not once moved by a fish or by a current. It was stationary until one day a sea urchin appeared and chomped down on the leaf. The q-tip finally moved and slowly floated down the stalk. Otters swam around grazing on sea urchins and not once touching the gracefully falling q-tip. It kept falling until a young sea horse emerged and grabbed hold of it. It grasped onto it like it had done years ago. Still, the q-tip was to heavy for the sea horse to actively hold it. It let go and the q-tip dropped to the sand and kelp stalks at the bottom of the sea. It landed and grains of sand rose into the water like confetti in the air. The fell back down and the q-tip lay there. Fish would swim by and the occasional otter with an unlucky sea urchin. That was how the forest was like until more trash accumulated on the ocean floor. More q-tips, more bottles, even books and somehow televisions ended up down there. The kelp slowly wilted away and withered into nothingness. The sea urchins starving which starved the otters. The ecosystem ruined by those who have no regard for the Earth. If people had cared, the kelp, otters, sea urchins, and marine life could have been saved, yet to no avail.