Nothing Is Ever Away Poem by linus gerald

We say we throw things away
as if there is a place
beyond consequence—
a quiet nowhere
where plastic forgets its shape
and smoke forgets our names.

But the earth remembers.

She remembers bottles
that outlive generations,
rivers carrying wrappers
like unwanted letters,
landfills rising
like monuments to haste.

We were taught to consume,
not to consider.
To replace,
not to repair.
To bury what we no longer want
and call it cleanliness.

Yet waste is only a story
unfinished.

A bottle can be born again
as fiber, as fabric, as something useful.
A banana peel can soften
into soil's sweet language.
Metal can return to fire
and come back stronger.

Nothing is ever "away."
There is only
return.

Sustainable waste management
is not just bins in three colors.
It is a shift in seeing—
a promise to pause
before we discard.
A question whispered gently:
Where will this go next?

It is sorting with intention,
compost breathing quietly in the corner,
communities choosing reuse
over reflex.

It is the dignity of repair—
mending what is torn,
honoring the labor
woven into every object.

It is cities rethinking design,
industries reshaping cycles,
children learning
that stewardship
is an act of love.

Because the planet
is not a storage room
for our forgetting.

She is a living system—
intricate, patient,
aching under excess
yet hopeful in our awakening.

Imagine streets without plastic sighs.
Oceans free of drifting ghosts.
Air no longer heavy
with burnt remains of convenience.

Imagine calling nothing waste—
only resource
waiting for wisdom.

The future is not built
in grand speeches alone,
but in daily decisions:
to reduce,
to reuse,
to recycle,
to rethink.

And when we choose
responsibility over recklessness,
care over convenience,
we lighten the earth's burden
piece by piece.

For in every mindful act
is a quiet revolution—
a turning away from harm,
a turning toward harmony.

Nothing is ever "away."
Everything returns.

May what returns
be gentler
because of us.