Carbon Imprint, Not Footprint
A Poem by Jovina Zion Pradeep
A footprint is something that can be erased,
A mark left on an unstable surface.
If carbon emissions are a footprint
Then our earth is unstable,
And there’s no one as much as us humans
Who must take the blame for it.
We, who walk in the streets daily
Where we see tin cans adorning
The sidewalks - a shiny catastrophe.
We, who step on the rocky shore of the beach
And witness crinkly bottles washed ashore
Choosing to throw the bottle back to the ocean.
We, who choose to look away as the glint
Of plastic glares into our pupils and
Avoid the stench of burnt soda cans
That dolphins are forced to breathe in.
Across the shore, a mother bird mourns for her
Dear offspring engulfed by plastic bags;
They mistook it for shiny necklaces.
Choked whispers escaped from her children's
Tiny beaks as she looked into our eyes, helpless.
We stand there unmoving, our thoughts
Unwavering, wondering where that crinkly
Whisper came from.
If a plastic bag can cause death
Then a carbon footprint is permanent;
It’s not a temporary problem that you can just
Throw away in the trash since the landfill is
Only going to be burned.
All that smoke contributes to carbon emission
With plastic causing 80% of marine pollution
That can’t be erased. Landfills account for
More than 15% of the world’s methane emissions.
Carbon emissions seem to be the imprint
We leave on earth — a planet we don’t own
And were gifted to inhabit.
When we leave the lights on all night
Because we are too tired to turn it off,
We think the earth won’t be affected
Because it’s so large but it is.
Our children are the ones who brave
The long term effects of the world
We give them to live in.
Do we want them to visit an empty
Aquarium where all the fish died
From choking on plastic?
Should we change our narrative and tell them
the sea turtle lost the race to stay alive after
Being endangered instead of how the
Tortoise won against the hare?
Every ton of plastic pollution embedded
Within the fibrous webs of woven fabrics wields
Weapons of polyester molecules shielding their
Sheaths from biodegradability.
The seaweed necklaces upon scrawny seagull necks
Cascade their aroma as sprinkles drifting in the cool breeze
Become clouds of smoke, invisible chimneys from the hearts
Burning within for global change.
We call oysters precious for their pearls, render them rare
For their price; yet the treasure they protect is priceless:
They protect the coastal ecosystem we ought to guard
Throughout all time, and never let any species fully depart.
Jovina Zion Pradeep is a South Indian poet from the San Francisco Bay Area, photographer, community organizer, and editor at Blossomer Literary Magazine and at Polyphony Lit. She is the 2025 National Youth Poet Laureate of the Western United States and Youth Poet Laureate of Alameda County (2024-25) who has performed at the Beast Crawl Literary Festival, been featured as a guest poet on Alameda Island Poets, and read at the Alameda City Hall. Her poetry has found a home at Poets for Science, United States National Youth Poet Laureate Newsletter, The Wave, The Louisville Review, Tri City Voice, Moonstone Arts Center Spring 2024 New Voices Anthology, San Francisco Youth Anthology, The Howl, SeaGlass Literary, The Dungeness Press, and elsewhere.
