2020 C.E

That which came before you was cunning, ruthless
Soon scattered by the winds of change, we think.

You came as the flicker of hope, lifted high
As Simba on the sturdy arms of Mufasa
We jeered at the former!

Yet your growth was lightning fast
You outpaced the songsters on their song -
With deafening silence

Your turbulence shattered ink horns and broke styluses,
shredded treasured papyruses wiping memories and the chance to tell story.
You maimed lyricists
For you will paint your own story as you made them!

You stole our soul; we won’t live to tell but to gaze in amazement as you performed and painted your erratic piece.

You chose this terrain, your canvas to profane!
Paint brush dipped in velvety ink and splattered across the plains of the Kalahari as wild locusts sparing no crop.

Paint brush dipped in flammable ink, hovered over the molten lava of Erta Ale and applied steadily on this canvas, singeing California – those wildfires!
Canvas in soot and flames!

Then to save canvas, you poured cats and dogs – those torrential flood waters in the Americas, Europe, Africa.

Then to save wet canvas
You let out your warm breath – the unbearable humidity laced with heat in Africa.

Paint brush dipped in the ink of plagues and smeared all over these yellow terrains.
The Ink spread over this canvas unabated
Stale air, stealing breath out of the living
Leaving inhabitants in despair and hopelessness

These scars linger…
And this Ink spreads unabated…

Then canvas was chaotic and unbearably hot
You dipped these parts in frost –
Snow storms in the USA, Canada!

Paint brush dipped in ink of past plagues
These tiny droplets of Dengue, Ebola, Lassa dried quickly, faded quickly.

You were noisy
You beat these drums of conspiracy theory
As a man possessed on the fontomfrom

You painted and painted and painted pain
Till the winds of Change muscled you out

Time spoke and you were gone

Your pain brush fell…

And now we gaze in amazement at your intriguing mosaic

on broken canvas