Joyless

Satan said to the lord:

"I am finished here. There is no longer any meaning,

nor a single thing to gain, in the malfeasance of man. "

The brilliant orange sun

fiery old ballast

burnt our skins

without love or malice

Violent rising ocean,

thunderous and black,

so nurturing till then

cast us out and took us back

The rivers, they polluted us

Soil filled in our lungs

Gold and silver wore our skins

Lambs ate our young

The mountains carved out our spines

Hydrocarbons stole our bones

Trees took up our mouths,

spread their roots and made their homes

Because the sun needed something to burn

The oceans, something to flood

The rivers they needed to find a place

to deposit their rocks and silt and mud

Because the lambs needed something to eat

The trees needed somewhere they could grow

And the mountains needed to carve out a place

where the rivers they'd borne could flow.

And the silver and gold felt ordinary

The hydrocarbons felt alone

The soil was only trying to find a place

where it's sprouts could breath and grow.

They never meant to bring us harm

They only meant to live their lives

And though they knew it would destroy us

progress has a price

Author's Note

I'm often asked where the quote at the beginning is from. It's from nowhere. It's fiction.

Reviews

[Chitra Raj]

Beautiful piece! Enjoyed every bit of it