TRASH ISLAND
Intro:
When men invented plastics
A hundred years ago,
They little saw its consequence
And little did they know,
They would unloose its widespread use,
And how much it would grow.
V erse1:
From Bakelite and PVC
To nylon and styrene,
New strains of plastic multiplied,
A virus on the scene.
The benefits were clear to see;
The downside risks were not.
The things it made just don’t degrade
It simply doesn’t rot.
Verse2:
Now water rains upon the land
And causes streams to be.
The streams turn into rivers
And flow gently to the sea.
Rivers transport the plastic
Detritus of our lives
From cities, towns and villages
To oceans it arrives.
Chorus (to the hymn There is a green hill far away)
There is an island far away
Where no one spends their cash
Entirely placed from plastic waste,
The Island of our Trash.
Verse3:
What’s this I hear? What’s this you say?
An island in the sea
Entirely made from plastic junk,
Mankind’s cast-off debris!?
This island’s huge. Its plastic waste
A hundred miles across!
Look what we’ve done! Our wasteful fun
Has fathered Nature’s loss.
Even Fats Waller would sit down and holler
That cotton’s monotonous gear
How nylons should bloom
In every dame’s room
And plastic is what they should wear.
That event never made it,
And Fats has degraded
And gone to that gig in the sky
But here back on Earth
Plastic floats in the surf,
And floats in Sargosso piled high.
I will take things in hand. Revolution I’ve planned
And I’ll make myself king of the place.
And I’ll live in style on this vast plastic Isle
As the President of the disgrace.
Its toxic bacteria
Will make me superior,
Defending me well from all foes.
I will feed bugs on plastic, a weapon so drastic
That those who attack decompose.
Bottle caps my fish eat; polystyrene’s a treat
In my empire of junk in the sea.
And I’ll live all the while on my synthetic isle,
The Lord of Trash Island I’ll be.