( • WH^T • )

Crickets

I hear crickets

After a loud, heavy thunder

Booms from the center of my body

As the stone I held disappears

No

The gem has melted into my skin

Its essence flows through my veins

Wait

My senses are still perceiving

My mind is still aware

Ash screams in defeat

Finding the pulses

Of a celestial firefly

Swarming under my skin

The child below

Wearing scars under grime

To remind us that she's still

Human

What have you done?

She roars.

I stare down at myself,

Knowing i'm no longer breathing

The same air as before.

What have I done?

You're the exact thing you said you'd cease,

She bites.

I look up to her.

I say:

I will take an eternal weight

To rest above my hollow grave

If it means that the surface of the earth

Can continue to be upheld

By the restful bodies of the future

And the stars that arrive after dusk

Can continue to shine and gleam

When the souls of the innocent

Roam free to brith galaxies

From their purity and delight

To cleanse the universe

Of all the predators

That may lurk beyond.

This is my forest

And my throne

Drifts in fractures

As planets

My crown

The brush of paint

To drag dreams further

Into reality

I am not a sovereign

To use my knowledge as force

I am a guardian

Using my strength

As a foundation

Where the roots of virtue

Can spread again