The Edge of Grace

The water laps excitedly against my barren toes as I bury them further into the sand beneath me. Tears prick the corner of my eyes and a soft moisture travels down my cheeks that isn't from the gentle rain that has began to fall over my hunched shoulders. Peering over my shoulder I look back to the array of animals that has been placed on the shore. They are swaddled in the devices of man and their eyes have long glazed over in death.

A death that hadn't been peaceful, or hadn't been due to mother nature or natural order. A death not played out like it should have been. These animals were those that couldn't be saved by me and my staff today. These were animals that were led to their slaughter by man's greed. We bound them in elastic chains in feigning ignorance and then tossed aside their grievous complaints when the evidence of our apathy became clear.

We had been irrational and graceless as we threw our trash into their homes and asked them to cope with our madness. We didn't give them the opportunity to say no, because we knew that they couldn't. We foolishly disregarded our debris in the mindset that our choices wouldn't have a consequence.  They can't fight us. They can't tell us no. So who is going to stop us? Who is going to stop us from destroying our oceans and our planet?

As I stand and observe my team begin to pick up the bodies of those we have destroyed and I ponder over our future. What planet would be here for our children, and our children's children? Would my child get to know the joy of the ocean as it washes over her skin and soothes her aching soul, or would she be witness only to the chaos and aftermath of mans choices?

Stepping forward I slip my boots back on and trudge up the shore to join my team in cleaning the wreckage. Kneeling downwards my gloved hands wrap around a small gull that hadn't got the opportunity to fly yet. Her delicate white feathers had been compressed with a plastic soda-can wrapper and had bound her precious wings to her body. A disheartened sigh escapes my lips as I push my hands beneath her limp body and cradle her delicate form in my fingers. Her feathers had been rubbed away where the plastic had sat and her skin was marred with angry red whelps.

I apologize to her even though I know it does nothing for her now. I secretly plead for her forgiveness of mankind and the choices we have made even though I know we don't deserve it. Then, with tender care, I say goodbye to her frail body and place her inside a bio-hazard bag.

Rising to my feet my eyes sweep the bodies around me; my heart tightens. We were now standing on the edge of our worlds grace and we needed to change before we killed her.