At first they fell like snowflakes
each with its own sharp crystals
glittering in high definition,
multiplying exponentially
with each act of coldness.
Then, a pattern of carbon footprints emerged
in the blanket of snow covering the earth.
Greenhouse gases melted the snowflakes
blurring their edges.
People sloshed, flinging slush at each other asking
"Is this all there is?"
Thankless words gnawed the air like acid,
creating a grid between the spaces.
They twisted it, formed a screen to keep the others out.
Fragmented, each gap became a loophole
begging for more, to fill the void.
They tightened their grip.
Even with their arms linked, they plotted to surpass each other.
Bees disappeared as mysteriously as Mayans,
taking sweetness from the world.
Enemies that could not be annihilated with poisons
became torn bits of flesh in barbed wires.
When the grid had nearly covered the planet,
it became a net
scooping up those that couldn't keep pace,
piled them in like dying fish.
Bemoaning their stench,
they dumped them in landfills,
burying them alive
like bulldozed gopher tortoises.
As the glaciers melted the net expanded,
rerouting nature,
amassing and depositing debris.
Oceans of messages collided on cellular waves
their text scrambled in hyper-abbreviations.
The net sagged with the burden
of those who had outlived their usefulness.
Absorbing everything in its reach,
the net became as saturated as a cloud before the
squall.
Finally, the net burst.
Loose ends strangled each other.
Layers beneath the ashen topsoil,
worms were already working.
So in the end, a new beginning was forming.
Yet even now, greed lurked,
waiting for a foothold
like mold spores crouched in dark crevices
awaiting a drip of sweat.
***
Cheryl
has had two poems published in Sandhill Review, a Saint Leo University
publication and is a member of the Saint Leo Writers’ Circle. She has also
written for a local newspaper. She is a caregiver for her mother and lives with
her husband and their two cats in Florida, the “Land of Flowers,” where she
tends an ever expanding garden of diverse wildlife.
