|
I was once something much more. I was a whole, a sum of my parts. Yet, now I am but a piece to a whole, a fraction of a part. I was majestic. I was breathing, and I was a home to many. My limbs stretched to the air, soaking in the warming rays of the Sun. I would dine on those rays. When the rays would not suffice, I would dine on the moist earth below my slender body. And when the air turned cold and the sun did not shine, I would sleep. My leaves would fall and would wait to nourish me when the air turned warm again. I would dream good dreams--dreams of a world with everlasting sunshine. The moistest earth imaginable. Songbirds would fill my crown and sing at the earliest hours of the morning. Even the humans would sit at my roots. And these humans would dream, too. But somehow I think that they dreamed of other things. Monsters and Ghosts of worlds past; that is what I believe they dreamed of and what I believe they still dream of. They dream of things no Human or creation of nature should do. They dream of killing and destruction and indescribable acts against each other. They dream of the things they would not otherwise do in their waking hours. I have not seen my brothers and sisters in what you might consider a long while; to me it is just a breath in time. I was taken from my home, my Earth, when the humans were new to the world... new to this world, a world where some humans would respect me and my brothers and sisters. I am aware of other worlds or lands, as the birds would tell me. They told me of fierce battles between Humans and their brethren. They told me of destruction and rebuilding. They told me of the Humans' way of hating, the Humans' way of loving, and the Humans' way of surviving. But what they didn't tell me was the Humans' way of taking. For when the Humans came, they took. I watched them take my family, my friends, and my sun. Then I watched as they took me. I know not pain other than hunger, but I think that this might be considered pain. I was suddenly two parts, then three, then many. I could feel myself being... reshaped... reformed? I am not sure, but the shape I knew was not there. The things I knew were not there. I was surrounded by the most unfamiliar. The worst of it was that the Sun was not there and the earth was not there. I felt like sleeping but the sleep was not there. I had no majestic arms reaching to the sky and I had no songbirds in my arms. I had no leaves to catch the sunlight that wasn't there. By all that I knew, I should be sleeping. That is when my dreams started to turn like the Humans' dreams. They were not good. I dreamt of destruction, not of the Humans' kind, but of the world as I knew it. I saw the destruction of all that was real, all that was my world. I saw the humans do what they do best... take. I saw them taking my world. I dreamt like the Humans. Now I am no longer a home to many; I belong to a home for many. I can still see the Sun, but I can also see the world of the humans. The world moves, not like it moved before but much quicker. I see Humans and tiny Humans move past me, numerous times throughout the course of a turning of the Sun. I can not feel the sustenance the Sun gave me before. But I can feel the warmth it gives. There is no moisture in the ground below me, for there is no ground. I feel as if I am... swinging... with the wind. I have gotten to know the Human way quite well. I have even gotten to know a bit of their speak. A lot of the speak consists of "hunneyy Immm howm" and "eyell b bachk laatterr." In this time, this short time for myself, I have seen so much and so little. I have lost the ability to breathe and gained the ability to see. The one thing I have seen that will not help my dreams is the one word that I understand, one that the Human's have yet to know the true meaning of. That word is, sorry. One day the Human's will understand, and we, my brethren and I, will forgive. Until that day, I will watch... watch and wait. |