A handful of earth

 

A handful of earth

I walked through the woods
Amidst the morning mist,
The sunrays pierced through
To give darkness a miss.
 
The silhouette of flocking birds transforming,
From a line, horizontal across the blue
To an echelon formation.
Ruling the sky, at least for a while.
 
The birds floating across the heavens
Gaining strength from their numbers
Unwary of the lurking danger
All around.
 
A solitary bird drops to the earth.
The flock moves on
No camaraderie, no remorse
No quest for a reason.
 
The bird fell dead
Way ahead of my path
Sunlight now in its fullness
Guided me to the feathered creature.
 
No warble, no chirp
Only a squeak and a stutter.
The bird as still as a pebble,
Soon to be embedded.
 
In a handful of earth.
Then the worms and the ants.
 
 

Humans, the vermin - aliens, the master

 

Humans, the vermin - aliens, the master

The ants, termites, and bees.
Never at rest.
Trudging along untiringly
Probing and searching.
 
Food and shelter
For the queen,
The slaves and the workers.
To live together in familial harmony.
 
Reigning supreme.
Humans perceive
World is under their feet
With rights to trample lesser creatures.
 
Ants, termites, and bees
Mercilessly stomped by human feet.
Vermin have no reason
To coexist with superior humans.
 
Then came the aliens
At first imaginative, then for real
Human superiority a myth,
Its survival is soon at stake.
 
Aliens gazed from their universe
Upon the world to see
Not vermin
But tiny humans running helter-skelter.
 
Humans like vermin,
Never at rest.
Trudging along untiringly
Probing and searching.
 
The predator
Humans feared for eons.
The aliens
Could trample humans out of this world.
 
Humans, the vermin,
Aliens, the master.