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| Sylvia Plath (source: Wikimedia) |
The piece was inspired by a line in a poem by Sylvia Plath.
It was
like a marriage that was never meant to be, but had to be. Like two
spiraling arms of a cyclone, we plunged headlong into each other, we
were wedlocked into a tight embrace, fondling while we loved and
ravaging each other while we hated.
Neither
knew what would be, we experienced the present without prescience.
Though I am much older than Life, I couldn't claim to be much wiser.
I could claim as much credit for the Sylvan landscape, as the leaf
could for the incredible chloroplast.
The
early stirrings were indiscernible. My ancient oceans were a soup,
with the ingredients that had been forged in the belly of the stars.
My only company was the sun, the moon and the occasional asteroid.
The distant stars with their cold light creeping across the infinite
spaces were but a reminder of my infinitesimal existence.
The
ages, I silently observed, at first without concern or care for the
precious phenomenon upon my bosom. Life suckled at my ample teats,
the Sun fertilised me with a continuous stream of radiant heat. I
came to love that which could care no more for me than those distant
stars. It was a love like none other, primal, unforgiving, merciless,
brutal and nourishing.
Out of
the oceans crawled out the crabs, soon on slithering spines did
Life's tentacles spread across my lands. Lush forests festooned my
rainfed belt, the sparse mountains blossomed into multitudinous
colours. Life grew in complexity, the ages swept by, leaving an
assortment of species, one stranger than the other, one more
ingenious than the other. Every niche, thinkable and unthinkable soon
became occupied, only to be wiped out by my calamitous nature, only
to respawn and crawl back, in a new form, a varied garb, a stranger
ecosystem that one couldn't have dreamed of in their wildest
delusions.
My
brethren remained sterile, their vast expanses lay bare and exposed
to the infinite spaces above. My soil was covered by the canopies, my
mantle became fluid and flowed, the tiniest bacteria began causing
tectonic shifts. My atmosphere changed, my climate changed. My soils
changed, so did my rivers, oceans and lakes. Everywhere, life held on
with a tighter grip than before.
I iced
over once, with the frosty fingers reaching into my tropics. The very
oceans turned into an icy slush, I almost suffocated Life. But Life
held on with much more vigour than I had anticipated, biding its time
for a favourable sunrise.
Over
the ages, Life became aware enough of me, only to ravage me, and to
become aware of my own assaults, some retaliatory, and some
unprovoked.
Humans
emerged on the horizon, building civilizations a fortnight after they
climbed down from their trees. The cities grew hungrier and
thirstier. The rivers were all diverted into them, and they emerged
black and full of stink, with a sludge that could not support the
very Life that I had nourished for ages in my harsh lap. The wheat
and barley grass grew were once great forests stood, now uprooted and
gutted. The noble whales were hunted without mercy. The long dead
forms of Life were dredged up, their ghosts filled the air with
noxious fumes and trapped the sun's heat. The Humans went on
heedless, with disregard for the rest of Life and for their
nourishing partner.
Their
follies compounded and destroyed their own numbers. Their poor died
first, and their rich died too. Out of the ashes emerged an
enlightened biped, with an awareness unsurpassed. With locks of hair
flaming red, their consciousness could contemplate the mysteries of
the universe. One no more felt small and lonely while surveying the
infinite spaces, the twinkling stars, now seemed to beckon. I go
forth now with my child, my lover, my paramour. Each
indistinguishable from the other. Out of the ashes, I rise, like a
volcano, exploding the red entrails into the skies, and I eat the
parsecs like air.
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