These sculptures are due to be buried in 2027

When I think about my life, a lot of 

                                      joy 

is in some of the things. 

I have used and discarded

too many things.                                                                                             

But loads of the things I’ve used 

were thrown 

elsewhere

within an hour or less

All the printed words, or at least most 

of them, 

              will last forever. 

The paper will rot away, 

but the ink will never move on.  

Same as these dots- 

the collection of atoms 

that makes up each one- 

frozen and inert for all time. 

The words, like the dots, 

added to the landfill pile

The hands I miss were once 

aubergines, 

Maybe long before that 

they were part of a black rhino. 

stories for

your kids

like the Dinosaurs.

Their atoms now margarine tubs

             on supermarket shelves. 

frozen forever, building in piles that will 

never be part of anything again. 

Just because we can 

observe, 

doesn’t make us 

separate. 

The atoms that make up

           everything 

          in the world 

are as old as time itself. 

                   We 

are made from everything, 

and everything is made from 

                    us. 

A constant flow of atoms 

Like the weather system

you learnt in school. 

Water evaporates from the sea, 

and rains on the hills. 

When we eat, or pee, 

We take on or shed our atoms.

We are in a 

constant 

cycle with everything living

Part of you was a 

tomato. 

Part of you will be a 

           leaf 

within your lifetime.

I don’t want things I use 

to last forever, 

to outlive 

not just me,

 but generations beyond me. 

I don’t want to make art 

with things like that anymore. 

Bella Hope

2026