Terra Firma
gus stills
Posts: 366
Under the guise of sedition
she rose and walked the night.
She gathered shadows to her
like a falconer summoning a hawk.
This was no ordinary sedition--
it was no indignant protest,
no downtrodden mass in the streets--
This was something different,
this was something altogether new.
Her sedition was one of fervor
and yet it was as silent as the
flap of a hawk's wing. A billow
of air and then a vacuum, the
night collapsing once more into quiet.
Her aggressors did not even note
her passing, and if they did, it
was with a shudder of suppression.
Her coup made the headlines for a time,
though she drew no credit, she called
forth no praise. And soon, nearly as soon
as she had risen, she paused to watch,
from a nameless eastern peak, as her
work took flight, and turned the world
under her with the quickness of a bird's
dive to the surface of a tranquil lake.
The headlines grew, they took over the
front page and then the city page,
and the sports page dwindled as games
were called for rain, and thunder and floods.
Soon the biggest section of each paper
was that of the freely printed obituaries.
For a time, that is--and then the papers
stopped printing. The tv stations flickered,
and soon the news was but buzz and static.
The shadows fell upon her like snow
on the northern flank of her perch.
She watched as the waves rose and then
crested, as lions and wolves padded through
the cities, and she turned aside
as the dead were buried, covered with lime
and then forgotten. But she remembered,
for how could she possibly forget
the step of those who had trodden on her.
After a time, even that was a fading glimmer
on the surface of a nameless river.
Without those to give it name--to
note the sedition--the river ran to the sea
and the sea fell back as the ice grew,
the forests climbed above the collapsing cities,
and only then did she descend on a calm wind
to see the world wrought anew.
she rose and walked the night.
She gathered shadows to her
like a falconer summoning a hawk.
This was no ordinary sedition--
it was no indignant protest,
no downtrodden mass in the streets--
This was something different,
this was something altogether new.
Her sedition was one of fervor
and yet it was as silent as the
flap of a hawk's wing. A billow
of air and then a vacuum, the
night collapsing once more into quiet.
Her aggressors did not even note
her passing, and if they did, it
was with a shudder of suppression.
Her coup made the headlines for a time,
though she drew no credit, she called
forth no praise. And soon, nearly as soon
as she had risen, she paused to watch,
from a nameless eastern peak, as her
work took flight, and turned the world
under her with the quickness of a bird's
dive to the surface of a tranquil lake.
The headlines grew, they took over the
front page and then the city page,
and the sports page dwindled as games
were called for rain, and thunder and floods.
Soon the biggest section of each paper
was that of the freely printed obituaries.
For a time, that is--and then the papers
stopped printing. The tv stations flickered,
and soon the news was but buzz and static.
The shadows fell upon her like snow
on the northern flank of her perch.
She watched as the waves rose and then
crested, as lions and wolves padded through
the cities, and she turned aside
as the dead were buried, covered with lime
and then forgotten. But she remembered,
for how could she possibly forget
the step of those who had trodden on her.
After a time, even that was a fading glimmer
on the surface of a nameless river.
Without those to give it name--to
note the sedition--the river ran to the sea
and the sea fell back as the ice grew,
the forests climbed above the collapsing cities,
and only then did she descend on a calm wind
to see the world wrought anew.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
At least, I think there'd be no more reason to care whether bacteria took over as the dominant life force or whether algae was king or whether it became a wind-swept gas ball...at the point when all humans go...the earth will have it's own destiny!
hehehe....