Cotton Swab

The first machine spun, pressed and wraped the cotton fibres around each end of the blue, little plastic tube. Then, it spun, pressed and wraped thousands of cotton fibres around thousands of little plastic tubes. The second machine placed twenty cotton swabs in a box that a third machine closed. A mechanical tape took the little box and fifty five more boxes to a bigger one. A truck took them all to a pale supermarket employee, who ordered every box in straight lines in pale shelves. A well-dressed woman bought three. At her house, she opened one and used one of the sixty cotton swabs to clean her nails. Once done, she threw it to the toilet and flushed it away.

The cotton swab swam through the dirty sewers, and plastic bags and soda cans and toilet papers joined it. Then, all together, they reached the ocean.