Mother Load

In this compelling and contemplative Orion essay, Sara Michas-Martin writes about the uncertain and all-consuming experience of motherhood, raising offspring on a planet full of human-made hazards, and the environmental and health impacts of microplastic pollution. Readers will feel Michas-Martin’s poetry background in these sentences.

THE DEFINITION of here means “in this place,” this spot or locality. Also, a directional statement meant to point out where we are, as in, Here is where the needle will deliver immunity. As in, Here we are inside the house versus outside in “nature.” As in, Here we see a ghostlike shopping bag floating seven miles deep through the Mariana Trench. Here we are in time. In this human experiment.

THE AVERAGE person consumes five grams of microplastic a week. That is equal to the weight of five paper clips, or one sharpened number two pencil, one hundred and fifty-four staples, half a poker chip, or an entire credit card.

The irony of plastic is that it was never tested for human consumption, and our consumption has now turned us into repositories for plastic.