Meera Dasgupta
Stuyvesant High School, ‘21
“So many people have misconstrued and dismissed climate change as if it is not something that is valid for discussion. They refuse to see the long term consequences of their ignorance and turn a blind eye. Thus, it is up to the youth to teach others about the impact of their everyday decisions whilst trying to help them find better alternatives.”
Meera is from Queens and lives with her mother and father. She is passionate about advocacy and credits her fellow youth as her source of inspiration to make change in the world. Aside from advocacy, she is also interested in spoken word and public speaking, and hopes to strengthen her skills in both fields. As a student, she plays an active role in her school, being a member of a wide range of clubs and programs. Although she would like to major in business in the future, she also hopes to publish a book of original poems and start her own not-for-profit organization.
Happily Ever After, the End
Once upon a time
I was 5 years old and I loved movies
It was a realm of possibilities
Where the imagination could run wild
I believed in magic
Once upon a time
I remember being elated
When my mom took me to the theatre
Eyes twinkling, smile bright
Once upon a time
The smell of popcorn wafting through the air
The movie Rio began to play
Where mystical, blue, feathered birds spoke
The impossible was possible
And the worst problem in the world
Was running out of M&Ms
Little did I know that Blue was dead
His species wiped out,
Life losing to greed
The magic wore off
The veil lifted
Wildfires crackling
Smoke darkening
Children asphyxiated by a cloud of debris
No more movies, only cable news
Take a breath in
Fire combusting in the lungs
Stop breathing
Feels like you’re drowning
Deterioration of society as
The red in our blood fills with lead
Perhaps that’s why we don’t seem to care anymore
When
Disease spreads across continents
Or when rivers run a sickly orange instead of blue
Finding Nemo is futile
He has already passed
Smothered with the spilled oil
Of a tanker
I feel the guilt of humanity
A burden on our shoulders
Turn on the faucet
Turn it off
Turn on the light
Turn it off
Don’t drive in your car when you could walk to the market
First degree murder
Factories spitting fumes into the sky (don’t you know smoking is bad for you?)
Second degree murder
Getting sucked into consumerism
Where green paper is worth more than lives
Third degree murder
Watching it happen
A world beaten and bruised by the elements
Millions displaced
Living things
Burning
Skinned alive
WON’T YOU JUST LET THE SPELL BE LIFTED?
Magic is gone
And speed dialing Cinderella’s fairy godmother won’t solve our problems
If climate change were a crime
We’d all be in jail
Our homes turned into prisons
Our actions, our jailers
Once upon a time
I believed that the world was perfect
But now, I know it’s not
And if we don’t take the time to pick
Up the broken pieces of what we
Shattered
There will be no more Happily Ever Afters
Ever
Again.
