When Mankind Leaves The World Behind…….

A message for Earth Day

“There will come a time”, said the oldest of them, “that mankind will leave this world and all of nature will rejoice.
Why? Because the world will once again be still, calm and at peace.
There will be sounds. But sounds that enhance the quietness, sounds that have been heard throughout history but that were stifled and silenced by mankind’s loud invention. And intervention.
When mankind has gone, the sounds that were forgotten will return.
Birdsong will be heard at dawn once again.
Leaves on forest trees will echo the sound of distant waves breaking on remote shores.
It will even be possible to hear the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, that is a sound not heard for a long time. But it will be heard again one day….”

When mankind leaves the world behind,
then all of nature shall rejoice;
because the calm and peaceful mind
will hear again a solemn voice.
The quietness man replaced with tension,
Earth song he obliterated;
stifled by his intervention,
nature’s beauty desecrated.
But when man has disappeared,
returned to dust and sand and stone
and all the things he engineered
left crumbling and overgrown,
well then the birds may sing again
and trees will grow and flowers bloom
and waves will carry life, and rain
will nurture nature’s fruitful womb.
Then let the ancient sounds be heard,
those that were silenced by the night;
the plaintiff cries of beast and bird,
the wings of butterflies in flight.
As waves break on an empty shore,
too late to find humility,
mankind is gone for evermore.
The stars align.
Tranquility.

story and poem © Jason Endfield 2018