Balloons And Fish Poem by Ellis Slater

Balloons are often released in remembrance of someone or some event, like victims of a bombing, the bombing itself, or a new baby. According to the University of Michigan, about 3,604 balloons were found on the shore of Great Lake Michigan in 2017. Another report in 2016 by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the World Economic Forum said that if the current rate of plastic pollution continues, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050. Scientists estimate that there are about three trillion five hundred billion fish in the ocean currently.

Now, you are probably wondering, ‘What does this have to do with anything? Sure, I know it is a problem, but I can't do anything about that. I am just one person.' Yes, you are only one person, but what if I changed the scenario? Looking at America's Health Ranking website, they report about 100,000 suicides from teens from the ages 15-19 in one year. There are about 21.05 million teens in the exact same age group. What do you say now? It only takes one person that reaches out to change someone's outlook? Let me ask, have you ever been that one person for someone? 100,000 friends of mine are dying each year because people turn a blind eye, but once they have had enough and tie that noose, that is when everyone cares and mourns! They release balloons into the sky as a symbol of your memory.

But you don't get it, do you? The ones that have taken their own lives often over-analyze things. And as someone who has thought about taking my own life and over analyzes things, let me tell you what I see and hear when a balloon is released into the sky to represent me and my memory. I hear how much you wish you had said something when we were still there. I hear your hope that honoring us will be enough and redeem yourselves. I hear sorrow in your cries, and relief. Freedom from the one that never knew what to do, never could ask for help. Or that could just be me reading too much into the situation again, I do not know anymore.

I see the numbers of those lost and the numbers of balloons released each year. I see what the balloons and the fish represent. We, the balloons, are released only to fly to high and pop or lose helium and fall into the ocean. The fish, opportunities for success, get outnumbered by the balloons floating in the sea. But by floating in the sea, we get washed up on shore to be thrown into a garbage dump, suffocate the fish, or sink to the bottom to only become pollution on the lonely sea floor. No matter where we go, everything dies because I am just plastic, while you, scales. I am the torn Walmart bag that someone tossed away after I could not hold it together any longer. I am the shiny wrap on the outside of that brand new game you have been waiting for. No one knows why I am here, nor what purpose I serve. All anyone knows is that I am the barrier in between what they desire and them so I am immediately torn without hesitation by young, impatient hands. I am the trash that will kill this world.

So now I ask you, you with the knowledge of all of these sinking balloons talking to a balloon that only seems to keep floating higher, have you ever tried to reach that balloon that can just touch your fingertips before it gets too high? For I am not just a sinking balloon, but I am a drowned fish, killed by my own home, my own thoughts. I die in places where I know should be safe but are not. My body rots in places where I should be able to let down my guard but don't because I do not remember how. I know I am not the only floating balloon or drowned fish, but please let me be the last.