Unbroken

He had gotten used to it. All the mocking and ridicule but his determination did not falter. It would often take him several hours in a day to collect waste from his community but he would do so with utmost effort. Picking up as much as his tiny back could afford. Small things, from small plastic containers to tiny pieces of junk. What else could he pick that would not overwhelm his tiny being? No one from the shoal would help. Everyone thought he had lost it. "We're fish. We are not supposed to be cleaning up. We will die anyways. Leave this job for the intellectual ones."

He didn't understand why everyone depended on the intellectual ones so much. It was these same beings that made their home uninhabitable. He couldn't take the depressive thoughts as an answer to give up. Was it the end for them? Could he just give up the place where he grew up and lived his little life to the irresponsibility of the 'intellectual ones'? 

He didn't understand why everyone in his community gave up so easily. "It has become our responsibility you know. If the intellectual one's can't do anything, we must try our best to save our home. Where else can we go?"

No matter how hard he tried, he could never convince his community to help. His own family didn't care either. He had become a lone wolf. Swimming through the murky cerulean blue waters, his mind clouded with these thoughts as he held onto the last piece of trash for the day. It was a cotton 'stick', pink in color.

Maybe it was these bright colors that attracted the intellectuals to use these cancerous commodities, he thought.

He was tired. Physically. Mentally. His mind raced with all the thoughts of the sea, before it was impure. His home. He never wanted this. He never wanted to devote a life to picking garbage. He wanted to spend time with his family. He remembered the time when he would play for hours in the reef, with his friends. Now all that remained in the reef were indestructible bags of some sort, the kind his mind could not comprehend. The reef was still colorful, but only because of the colors of these bags.

 Sadness would overtake him at times, rendering him useless in front of this undeniable fate his whole community was facing, but he would decide to keep trying. He would keep trying to change everyone's mind. He would keep trying to save his home. He wanted a future free of these worries, for the future of his kind. Even at the cost of his life, he had to try.