Tupelo Quarterly Poem: Ode to Plastic Cups

Ode to Plastic Cups by Naomi Ortiz published in Tupelo Quarterly in A Forum on Disability Poetics — curated by Christopher Salerno

Ode to plastic cups

“The goal is for no trash to be sent to landfills, incinerators or the ocean.”
- Zero waste definition, Wikipedia 2022

Weight of both reusable glass plus liquid means
my wrist twists down
the only direction it bends
sends drink to splash on carpets or slippery floor

Worse yet
non-flexing elbow means arm
smacks cup across room with accidental gusto
at least once a week

Beloved coffee cups
shatter into h u n d r e d s of p i e c e s
must dredge energy to clean up now
hot beverages, my expensive habit

At restaurants, I have to ask for a straw
slick perspiring drink
pointless to even try to lift
to lips with fingers, hand, shoulder
Instead, I bat and slide glass across tabletop
position straw below mouth, sip
then push it back, nudge, shift

Except, every once in a while, I miscalculate
or glass bottom catches on table surface
to topple and douse eating companion with cold beverage
saturate my clothes and shoes good

Unless the cup is plastic

Oh, chemically bonded vessel, with your springy forgiveness
to bounce passively on floor, patiently listless
you wait for me to retrieve you in my own time

Oh, plastic cup
with your bright shiny colors
your fun designs
your resilient sides
As scooter squeezes you between wheel and wall
you may bend, but do not crack where you lie

Weight light, large brim
I can sip straight from the rim

Glossy red party cups sold in long plastic bags
last me month-long jags
I stock up, dollar store deals
just what works for my body
call it an accommodation
this need for plastic cups

As disabled person
independence is precarious
daily-life and reason
constructed upon a wobbly set of Crip-hacks
get me from, can’t to good enough

Where is my place in zero waste?

(c) Naomi Ortiz
Rituals for Climate Change: A Crip Struggle for Ecojustice