Breath

No stars seen from upon the Earth.

No stars for eyes young or old. Light, burning bright. New night, eclipsing old night.

Sleep. Eyes shielded from the light. Eternal light, blocking out eternal night.

Struggling to breathe. Hands flailing, in the dark, to find something upon which to hold.

Cannot sleep. Cannot breathe. The world and its children suffocating.

Chests, rising and falling. Like oyster shells, but without pearls inside.

All oysters extinct. All pearls taken.

Breathe in poison. Breathe out poison.

On Earth, cannot breathe.

Denied life. Denied light. Denied birthright.

Every year, harder to breathe.

##

Shambling silhouettes in the neon gloom. Among the billions, eyes forever downward.

None able to breathe. Surrounded in a cage of steel and concrete. Liberation forgotten long ago.

Gears turning. Fuels burning. Production, none spurning.

Mind and body, separated.

No emotion. Simply walking. Locomotion.

Look up. Lights bright. No stars at night. See rocket, taking flight.

Up there, they can breathe.

##

Above the light. In night. Separate from sons and daughters. From here, see the Earth's trauma.

Bones aching. Gravity lower. Rebuilding. To what?

Those below cannot hold back what is coming.

Air is cleaner. For some, already native breath. Already here, some born. From Earth's womb severed.

Separation long been made. Nothing can be remade. Just approaching death.

From Earth, I turn away.

##

On desert world, easier to breathe.

Stronger bones, rebuilt. So much being built upon the red sand. On which domes of concrete stand.

Like Earth. But not. One planet dying. One planet long dead.

No light in sky, covered by dust. Wear more than a mask. Will never again feel sand upon my bare feet.

Interiors of the domes kept clean. Removed from the Sixth Extinction, and the Anthropocene.

Sun is dimmed. Life dimmed. Even here, within the domes, find sin.

Apples, inside, growing. Hunger, still showing. Hope going…going…going…

Gone.

##

On Earth, ever harder to breathe. From this world, I grieve.

Upon the screens, more lies. Ever more species die.

One planet looking more and more like another.

One war after another. Brother fighting brother. From here, from the outside, see the truth.

Too late for rejuvenation. For reparation. Cannot be renewed.

Things dug up from ground. Depleted, cannot be found.

Not on that world.

##

Built in sand, is the economy. Barely enough, even here, for a cup of coffee.

Offer granted. Offer taken. A second time, a world forsaken.

Up, up, up past the dust, to waiting chariot of the stars. To travel far.

In suspended sleep. No dreams, however deep.

Six years. Free from hopes, as well as fears. Until, awake.

Awake. World below, beheld.

Blue. Green. Already despoiled, by means obscene.

In shuttle descend. Fresh soil, have to rend. Paid well, for what is left from behind?

For the third time, a mask. World so vast. Gaping wound in the world, vast. Miners plenty, working fast.

Still can't breathe.

##

Cannot breathe.

Fury. Fire. World knows ire.

Poison, spreading. But has already spread. Spread from the moment I first took breath.

From breath, rest. Sleep. Not cold. But deep.

Death, stalling. Still falling. Creatures from above, falling. Chariots of steel, falling. War cries, calling.

Cannot breathe.

In grass, no silence. Still behold the violence. Thundering footsteps, roar of steel. Almost unreal.

Cannot breathe.

Trees burning. Long has been the process of spurning. The universe keeps turning.

Everything's burning…everything's burning…from first breath, all was burning…

Cannot breathe.