Aristotle’s disciple, Theophrastus,
sent a message in a bottle proving
the Atlantic flowed into the Mediterranean. 
Shipwrecked sailors sent messages
arriving too late for rescue.

Now from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch 
castaway plastic bottles send messages
in languages foreign and domestic. 
Societies’ discards funneled from rivers, 
storm drains and ships at sea,
trapped in a confluence of currents, 
a twice-Texas-size gyre of debris:

a stuffed bear, a lawn chair, toothbrushes, 
plasticware broken by sun and wind, 
confetti-like particles ingested,
mistaken for plankton;
chemical sludge passed in a chain, 
lantern fish to jellyfish to serving dish.

Whale bellies fill with fishing line, 
sea lions strangle in trawl, 
albatross choke,
cry for rescue from the vortex 
before we’re all down the drain.