The Last Tree

Well, another day, another post. It's an interesting exercise, to be sure, but I wonder whether anyone has trouble handling this, their work, AND their social obligations...
Also, I had a hell of a time getting this posted. Just as I was almost finished and ready to post, the whole system CRASHED and wiped out my entry before I could publish it.

The Last Tree

I remember when this place was full and green. It wasn’t as vibrant as the elders remembered, but it was all I knew.

The skies were quiet and grey, with clouds drifting through them lazily. The sounds of the birds and the beasts could only be heard faintly. In the two decades that I existed, not once did I see a squirrel or a sparrow come anywhere near the centre of the woods.

Our people were firm, but we grew weak. The soil we depended on was poisoned, filled with an impure presence. Finding food and water was an increasingly difficult task. The elders remembered a time when it was not so…when we were a vast family, and the world seemed so much more alive.

All my life, I had a view which was green. I only saw the slightest bits of the outside world through the branches of my brethren at the edge of our group. I also saw whenever they fell. Their bodies were dragged away.

With time, I realised what was causing it. They were creatures that summoned smoke which choked the sky and made noises which shook the earth. They had iron monsters and blades which tore through our bodies as if we were made of air.

One by one, we fell, singly or in groups. The green surrounding me was lessening, and I could see the wasteland of the world. Eventually, they reached the centre. That was when they took my last cousins and me.

I was the last to go. I saw them cut through our bodies with their blades. Before long, I was the last one left, with only minutes of life left in me.

I saw the stumps and the remains of my people. I saw the blackened sky and the broken earth. And the world was harsh…it was cold and metallic now. There was no longer any true life or colour.

I remember when this place was full and green. Now it is empty and colourless. That is how it is. That is how it will be.