Gaia

Beautiful, oh so beautiful!

The giver of life,

A guardian of her creation.

A provider of all things vital.

She smiles upon her design.

The sounds of bees buzzing,

Of birds chirping and waves crashing.

Oh, how she looks on with pride and joy.

But anxiety assaults her.

A queasy sensation.

She hunts for what invoked this feeling.

Searching the ocean depths to the sky above,

But she cannot track.

Out on the horizon, she sees,

She sees a dark cloud.

A dark cloud of soot and smoke,

Of decay and neglect.

The shadowy figure comes ever closer,

Slowly.

It steps with no purpose, no direction.

Only with destruction left in its wake.

She sees its eyes set on her creation,

She runs to protect it,

To shield it from this decay.

Too early for death to take.

Splat, splat, splat.

With each dirty oily step it takes,

A finger reaches out.

She puts herself amidst figure and her creation.

A sacrifice, an offering.

She bargains, pleads,

Her cries and weeps are ignored,

For the figure only sees the creation,

As a source of power for itself.

She cannot let this decay grab hold,

She cannot sit and let it through,

She must fight,

And oh, how terrifyingly beautiful she fights.

Her eyes glow with an intensity to rival the sun,

Her hair becomes braided whips,

Her nails grow to make claws like vultures.

She has never looked so awe-inspiring,

So intimidating, so stunning.

She battles fearsomely,

A mission with each strike.

She fights viciously,

With protective intent.

She must not fail.

For if she fails,

All will be lost,

All will be tainted,

All will be corrupted.

She cannot fail.

As she battles,

She brawls with all her might.

With each attack she delivers,

The shadow figure bestows twice over.

She slits, slices, and slashes.

But it seems to be all in vain.

The shadow figure is persistent,

It eclipses her in power and stamina,

She cannot prevail.

Decay, neglect, rot.

Her creation starts to disintegrate before her.

Clear blue rivers turns a thick black ooze,

Trees become fragile and decrepit, dilapidated,

Putrefied down to the roots.

Birds fall mid-flight.

Animals of the land lay still.

Sea creatures float to the top,

Belly up.

Death steals all creatures,

Abruptly.

She is defeated.

There is no more she can do.

She can only watch.

Watch what she made be devoured.

She has fallen.

She could not protect.

She could not defend.

She could not save.

Her creation lost to soot and smoke.

She cannot take any more.

She lies conquered,

Crucified.