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I first posted this poem three years ago. Mother Earth had a brief respite under lockdown when the noise of engines fell silent and wild animals walked the streets and it seemed that nature just might have a chance. Now, even more, pollution spews and plastic continues to fill the oceans. The ice caps are melting even more rapidly and ‘freak’ weather events are becoming the norm. Today, Earth Day 2022, my poem resonates even more strongly.
Image credit: Mother Earth by gedomenas
Great Being Five had been practicing mindfulness while idly airbrushing some of the scenery on Orea, her second favourite planet, when a Thought Bubble popped up in the corner of her monitor. It was her friend and protégé, Great Being Nineteen. His Bubble glowed amber with agitation.
‘It’s Planet Earth. Something’s wrong!’
Five flicked a switch and focused her Third Eye on the spiral galaxy that contained her most beloved planet. Nineteen was right. Planet Earth was behaving very oddly. The whole world was flickering, like one of the earthlings’ little light bulbs when it was about to go out. Her Eye roamed around the screen. The stars in the Milky Way were shifting and shimmering ominously.
‘I think it’s the Time Grid,’ Nineteen yelled. ‘Something has gone wrong with the reset on Planet Earth1. Do something, Five!’
On the far side of her screen, a large chunk of the Milky Way blinked off and on.
A bolt of alarm shot through her. What had gone wrong? All she’d done was turn back Time a little bit in that small corner of the galaxy, so that the little humans could have a major re-think and cease their wanton destruction her lovely blue planet.
And it had all been going so well. The little earthlings had emerged from their planetary pandemic a reformed race. They’d been caring for the planet so well.
‘Shut the planet down!’ bellowed Nineteen. ‘Earth is compromising the whole galaxy!’
‘I can’t do that after all we’ve done,’ snapped Five, anxious to protect her little humans. She took a moment to focus. ‘There’s no need to panic.’
Nineteen’s Thought Bubble eye-rolled.
Five started scrabbling at the keys. She’d just have to reset the Timer again. Go back to the previous setting. Switch it off and switch it on again. Wasn’t that the mantra of every Techbot?
A sudden thought occurred to her. ‘What about your Mind-Set Program, Nineteen? Can you replicate that?’
Nineteen’s Thought Bubble made a thumbs up sign.
Five aligned the Time-Grid counter to its previous setting: 01.01.2020. She took a deep breath and pressed the reset button. At least the little earthlings wouldn’t know they’d already been through Nineteen’s Mind-Set Program, and after all, it had only taken a year for the scourge to die down. They’d be fine.
The screen went blue.
Five held her breath.
The image reappeared. Planet Earth and the Milky Way were stable. The Space-Time Balance had been restored.
The Thought Bubble made an apologetic pop.
‘What’s wrong, Nineteen?’
‘Sorry, Five. Planet Earth’s Virus-Settings wouldn’t accept the same program again. I had to opt for a Mutation.’
Five clutched the edge of her keyboard. ‘What do you mean?’
‘The pandemic is going to take a little longer to play out this time.’
‘How long?’
‘Well, there’ll be at least a second and a third wave before it’s over.’
‘And then?’
‘You’ll have your beautiful blue planet back again.’
‘But what about the little humans?’
‘Those who survive: never better.’
It’s been more than a year since we last caught up with Great Being Five in a story I wrote1 shortly after South Africa and many other countries first went into hard lockdown in March 2020. I wrote the story you’ve just read in January 2021, when South Africa went into the second wave of the pandemic but never got around to posting it. Reading it again this week, as the country teeters on the brink of the third wave, it seems even more apt than it did when I penned it.
You can find all the stories featuring Five here.
Photo credit: watercolour painting by Elena Mozhvilo
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I first posted this poem two years ago. A year later, when we were under lockdown and the noise of engines fell silent and wild animals walked the streets, it seemed that nature just might have a chance, but once again, pollution spews, plastic continues to fill the oceans and the ice caps are melting even more quickly. Today, Earth Day 2021, I find my poem is just as relevant, maybe more so.
Image credit: Mother Earth by gedomenas
Little innocent one, so new to the world,
sniffing the air and feeling the breeze.
Is there a place for you?
Little innocent one, so new to the world,
feeling the smoke sting your eyes.
I fear for you.
What will you do when they cut down the trees
and just a patch of your forest is left?
Where will you run when the hunters come
to take you far from your home?
Oh Humanity, think what you’re doing!
Don’t you know her fate
is our future too?
Written in response to Sadje’s What Do You See #41 photo prompt.
Image credit: Lewis Roberts on Unsplash
Meditating in the moment
watching silent wings beat softly
in bright iridescence
inhaling the essence
of fragrant flowers
before being laid to rest
on their beautiful bower.
She, who today, has been chosen
to atone for all our sins
the balm to soothe the breast
of our broken mother, Gaia.
Written in response to Sadje’s What Do You See #37 photo prompt.
Image credit: Stefan Keller on Pixabay
Great Being Five had been twiddling her thumbs for too long at the Academy for Wisdom¹. Over the decades she’d re-educated many recalcitrant Great Beings and re-engineered their wrong-doings. She’d set them all back on the straight and narrow, repentant of their misdeeds in the management of their planets. But now she was bored.
True, she still retained responsibility for two planets, but one was still at the ‘rocks and slime stage’ and the other, Orea, the one she used to love so much, with its pretty pastel colours and cute, fluffy life-forms, was… well, just a little bit dull.
Five was missing her beautiful blue planet. Planet Earth, which she’d finally decided to delete² back in Earth Year 2033, before the greedy, selfish little humans destroyed it themselves and took off to infect another planet.
She missed those fallible little creatures. Back in the day, before they had too many technical toys at their disposal, they were such fun. So creative! Five sighed as a wave of nostalgia broke over her desk and splashed off her Universal Viewing Screen.
Back in the day. The thought crossed and re-crossed her mind.
It lingered while a plan formed.
She’d done it before, and she could do it again. As a top official in the Academy, she had both the authority and the autonomy. All she needed to do was turn back Time in that small solar system on the edge of the Milky Way.
Once before she’d re-set Planet Earth, but sadly it hadn’t had much effect; soon the arrogant little inhabitants were back on the road to their inevitable existential fate. This time needed to be different. A planet-wide change of mind-set must be effected.
She knew just the Being to help her.
Five dropped a mind message to her first re-education subject, the one she knew best and her greatest success. She immediately sensed his enthusiasm for the project. He was primed and ready for action. She would take care of the Time-Grid and he would set up the means for a mind-set change.
He warned her it would be radical.
He warned her it would be tough.
He warned her it would take time.
She agreed.
Five aligned the Time-Grid: 01.01.2020.
A nice round number; not long before The Total Tipping Point.
She sat back. Watched and waited.
Planet Earth reappeared in its old position. The little humans had ceased their scurrying. They’d hunkered down and huddled in their homes. Five was saddened at the sickness and the suffering; the deaths of the elderly, the poorly and the poor.
The Earth turned and turned again
day after day
month after month.
Skies cleared. Rivers ran clean. Nature thrived and re-asserted itself.
The planet cooled down a little.
When the scourge passed, the little humans emerged. They had changed and the change came from within; a new understanding of their beautiful blue planet.
Five mind-melded with her colleague: thanks, Nineteen.
She hoped her little humans would get it right now.
¹ For the Greater Good
² And finally she pulled the plug
Photo credit: watercolour painting by Elena Mozhvilo
Sinead stood defiant as last of the Oppressors tumbled into the cloud-cloaked abyss. She’d underestimated the power of the fabled Blue Orb, and thought the Prophesy must be flawed, but the magic she’d unleashed when she spoke the sacred words had felled them all.
That last one had laughed scornfully. How could a mere woman destroy the Patriarchy? But he was wrong. He sank, like the rest of them, crumbling to dust.
Sinead plucked the Book of Prophesy from Moonsprite’s saddle bag. The snow-white unicorn whinnied softly as her mistress turned to the final chapter.
The words glowed red.
At last Sinead realised what the Fourth Sacred Artifact must be. Slowly she led Moonsprite back down the Sunset Path. Once more their journey would be long, but she must gather the remains of the Sisterhood.
Together they would forge the Freedom Key which would unshackle the chains of Mother Earth.
Written in response to Sadje’s What Do You See #21 photo prompt.
Image credit: Kellepics on Pixabay
Look away, my love. Remember it as it was. Listen to the birdsong swelling in a clear blue sky, hear the insects hum, feel the joy of the new lambs dancing in our fresh green fields.
Fix it in your mind. Our little farmhouse with its pretty garden. Smell the lavender you planted by the door, feel the cool breeze on your skin as it flutters the flower-sprigged curtains which you made last summer.
Let us go now, my love. Don’t look back. Let us leave this black and broken land and find a place where we can start anew.
Written in response to a prompt from Susan T. Braithwaite
Genre Scribes Friday Fiction Writing Challenge #28
The challenge this week was damage.
‘You must call the San Man,’ she whispers. ‘Only he can bring the rain bull.’
‘But how?’
‘You must go to the cave which watches over the veld. Go at dusk, light a fire.’ She reaches into the pouch she has beside her and holds out a handful of grey-green herbs. ‘Burn a little of this; and then watch and wait.’
He raises his eyebrows at his two companions.
The old woman holds up a finger. ‘He may not come the first night,’ she shakes her head slowly. ‘He may not come at all.’ She stares intently at each of them. ‘Now go.’
The three men depart.
‘I guess it’s worth a try,’ says the first. He is a tall, robust white man, dressed in shorts and sandals; the hint of an overseas accent.
‘Another winter with no rain; we must do something,’ agrees the second, a brown-skinned man, whose features echo the ancient people that once inhabited this corner of Africa.
The third man, by far the youngest of the three is silent. He too is brown-skinned, a son of the Rainbow Nation, where a multitude of peoples have planted their seeds.
Later, the three trudge silently up to the koppie where the ancient cave paintings are. The air is hot and parched like the veld. The sky turns liquid orange as the sun is swallowed up by the smudge-blue mountains. They light the fire and sprinkle herbs onto the flames. The three settle down to watch and wait.
/…to be continued
Today is a public holiday in South Africa. The Day of Reconciliation came into effect in 1995 after the end of apartheid, with the intention of fostering reconciliation and national unity for the country.
The characters in this new story represent (some of) the different groups in this country and the story has its roots in some earlier pieces I wrote about the rain animal my mythical, mystical San Man. There is more to tell of the story.
The struggle for water is a perennial and worsening challenge in many parts of the world. It was starkly brought home to us last year when Capetonians faced ‘Day Zero’, the day when the taps would run dry. The crisis was averted, but we still cannot waste a drop and must search for other ways to bring water to the thirsty land.
TRACTION BEAM ZONING IN… LOCKING ON…. AND ENERGIZE!
– Thank you Mr. Attenborough, we really couldn’t have completed our collection without you.
– Ms Thunberg, it’s been a privilege to meet you. In my long career, I’ve had many fascinating experiences, but I never expected to meet someone from the future. I’m humbled that you singled me out.
– You were the obvious candidate. You’re certain we haven’t missed any of the 21st century earth species?
– You have a pair of every living species for your trans-space-time settlement.
– Excellent.
– You will be returning to us won’t you, Ms Thunberg?
– In the blink of an eye. Remember, I can be in two places at once.
– Ah yes, you explained: quantum superposition; only a theory in the 21st century.
– You will keep my little secret?
– Of course. Although perhaps I might be permitted to share it with Brian Cox?
Written in response to Sadje’s ‘What Do You See #6′ photo prompt.
luna's on line 