The EE Sampler - Jefferson County Public Schools
The EE Sampler - Jefferson County Public Schools
The EE Sampler - Jefferson County Public Schools
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Diana Neamtu<br />
<strong>The</strong> Oak Tree<br />
A tall oak tree outside the door,<br />
Watches stoically as students pass,<br />
No one stops to admire it anymore,<br />
<strong>The</strong>y run to work, or friends or class.<br />
It stands silently and respires<br />
Purifying the air we need.<br />
Until the day when it expires,<br />
It does this constant, altruistic deed.<br />
But the Earth itself is slowly heating,<br />
As burned fossil fuels destroy its shell.<br />
A clear, clean future now seems fleeting,<br />
This pollution cannot be easy to dispel.<br />
Lakes and rivers are damaged, too.<br />
Filled to capacity with infiltrates,<br />
This natural abuse should be taboo,<br />
Who knows what our habit creates?<br />
Time passes and things change,<br />
No one cares for nature, just as before,<br />
<strong>The</strong> concrete world feels strange,<br />
<strong>The</strong> tall oak tree is outside no more.<br />
Greta Landenwich<br />
Beargrass Creek<br />
What a strange new landscape.<br />
Floating bottles congregate in spiraling<br />
islands,<br />
perhaps plotting their next assault<br />
against<br />
the already ravaged land.<br />
What a strange new landscape.<br />
Vehicles, magnets, batteries,<br />
remnants of urban warfare,<br />
bury themselves deep in her muddy<br />
bosom.<br />
Clothing and shredded plastic bags drip<br />
from the spindly fingers of trees<br />
forming stalagmites in the reflection<br />
of the murky water.<br />
Few creatures swim, or breathe, or play,<br />
except leeches, hunting and left hungry.<br />
Ghostly clouds of sediment float,<br />
attempting to escape,<br />
but redeposit, defeated, on Beargrass'<br />
bed.<br />
What a strange new landscape.<br />
<strong>The</strong> stench rises, thick<br />
and choking.<br />
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