They knew we were dying long before we were born
They waited as humanity took their first stuttering steps into a world that couldn't allow them to live
But we did
They watched as our light dawned
They circled, dark shadows overhead while we still only dreamed of the promise of the sky
But they waited
They coldly observed our first mistakes
They devoured the wounded and the dying
As the rest of humanity celebrated
First tasting the triumph of war
But still
We reached for the stars
Protected our family of the whole world
Laughed together at the night as it fell from the heavens
But
They saw the darkness spread among us long before our laughter stopped pealing through a forested world
For they saw laughter crystallize,
Harden
And rain to the earth, draw blood
And keep laughing
But still they remained
As we raged against the quaking of a dying earth
They stirred
Feathers rustling
Claws shifting and biting deeper
Into their perches
Even as we banded together
Splitting further apart
Vowed to change
Threw all that we were into protecting
What we had already killed
From what? You
Or you
No one knew, but everyone had a guess
Made known first with flung words
Ugly words
Then rocks
With the first nuclear lightning came the thunder of wings
A chaotic cloud
Slicing through the night with eyes that had seen the end before Time first rolled her shoulders
And sighed at the weight of the world
Frenzied
The serpent devouring its own tail
We looked never within
But only with venom
Outwards
Closer and closer
Our jaws frantically closing
Opening
With only madness left
Knowing only to destroy (ourselves)
As the serpent's ceaseless jaws neared themselves in their relentless search for Something
To fill to cease (chaos)
They mimicked the relentless twisting
Taking to the sky in a
Roiling
Fury
Of wings talons beaks feathers
Eyes
Cruel joy screaming at fulfillment
Seeing our end
Just as we fail to see our only power
First blinded by love
Of a new world
Made giddy by possibly
Then by greed
The final monster born
False optimism cloaking its growth
Clouded by self importance
(We can stop?)
We will change
Blame
(We can stop you)
You must change
And final fury at our inability
To influence anything
Until we saw that we could
Influence
(Ourselves)
Destroy
(Each other)
What collective?
So now they wait
Clouding the sky in clashing formation
Exuberantly screaming for oblivion
Satisfied
By the scope
Of
Relentless
Consumption
