TITLE

Miram Anglin

The Foot of a Bird

The thin summer wind blew cold, dragging (insert name here) out of his temporary slumber. The cold nipped at his skin, it stumbled through his hair. He raised his head slightly, looking out across the vast valley. The wind moved through the tall golden grass building waves and disturbing the silliness of the quiet summer afternoon. Pulling himself off the ground, lurching slightly. The sky shown gray, cotton white clouds dragging snow colored streaks.

The hills layered against each other. They were like pages in a book: each was important yet they made a much more beautiful thing together. His eyes wandered over the landscape, looking for that speck of a person. An ant on a table cloth, she lay on the dry summers grass, looking up. He traveled over to her, savoring every delicate step. He knelt beside her. He let the bird’s call echo in his ears, the wind graze his skin, and the thick grass crunch under his feet. They sat there for a while, bathing in the essence of it all.

But that was a long, long time ago. When the world still lived.

There was no green now - no lush vegetation to cushion the foot of a bird. It was all gone. The skies shown rusty, thick with smoke and smog. Life suffocated underneath them. They invited the heat in and never let it out.

(Insert name here) wandered through the bustling streets. The gray blur of cars passed him by, their fumes choking him. He had a speech to attend to. He was searching for a speck of hope. He needed that. But in the darkest pit of him he knew that the earth could never be saved now. We are killing mother earth and now we have to face the consequences. We will destroy ourselves here, in this pollution filled ball of rock. But that notion, t...

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...oped it would be what had filled their dreams.

(Insert name here) breathed a soft breath as he waited in the holding cavity. His air mask supplied him with the life bringing oxygen he need, he felt the grasp of short breathed excitement. The commanding called out to one another. But the words did not resonate. They were alien to him now.

He saw the visual mixing of earth and foreign air. He saw the honey colored light that poured a triangle on his feet. He heard the mechanical rumble of the door opening. He heard the call of life in the distance. The door slid open, he saw a new world before him. A rich fertile land, a clear teal sky, mountains of earth and rock. Wind, sweet and musky grazed his skin. He took a daring step. A foreign world crunched beneath his feet. The alien sunlight warmed his face. He stood there for a while, bathing in the essence of it all.