Was Water

Blue, I was blue, all kinds of shades of blue - midnight blue, turquoise, indigo, baby blue, azure, aquamarine, sapphire. I was the space where the edge of the sky and water would meet. The two blues were so similar that at their edges one could not be distinguished from the other.

When going way out, on my lumpy waves, the blackness of the blue so deep, you were certain only monsters lived there. Light disappearing into my depths. The dark night of the day that only the sea had the power to create. Total blackness down in the weightlessness of water. I could take anyone down and hold them unrelenting. I did.

Water, you drank me, bath in me, felt me falling all around you, splash through puddles - saturating ever particle. Water, taken for granted until gone. No water left. The seas emptied out. First rivers ran dry. The earth, a crusty cracked shell. Now, just the memory of blue. With no sea to reflect the sun, the skies turned to a grey amber color. Dull and lifeless all but for the sparks and crackles of static popping into nothingness. The parched earth drank up every drop.

There were rumors of ice beds deep beneath the earth's crust. Cold spots, they were called. But no matter how far the drills drilled the ice could not be reached. The cold felt, but from where it came could not be found. The chill of snow memories lingerd then melted away.

One by one not two by two everything died. Sea creatures drowned to death in toxic air. Plants shriveled up on the vine. Forest fires burned themselves out, along with every other thing in their path. The planet caught fire. From outer space a temporary new sun burning itself out; A falling star stuck.

The smoke from the flames circled the planet sucking up every last drop of rain from the clouds. No more raindrops. Jet-stream stalled and the air stood still. Evaporation ended. Life on earth ended. A dead planet dangling out in space. Like every other lifeless mass held captive in this universe.

If there were still eyes to see, falling upward through the cracked sky the last drop would have been witnessed, dripping into outer-space. The deep black darkness of space where the beautiful blue of home leaked out. One drop at a time.

You went out looking for water, for life on other planets but there was none reachable. Your eyes could only see the distance. A single life span could only reach out so-far in time before expiring. You could imagine it but could not get there. You had faith, but God typical to God self-said nothing. You learned to dream and did so until you realized the dream had become a nightmare.

You inherited the earth then killed it. Or slowly suicided it. All the evidence was there, you choose to ignore facts for fiction. Disregarded science. In the end, you’ll matter not. In all your brilliance you too burnt out, got snuffed out. Sizzled up in flames. Returned to the earth. Your blood drank by stones or seeped to the center of the earth, became the molting inner core.

The earth's axes tilted when the ice caps melted. Gravity shifted too. No tides to turn. Heavy metals bonded together and become stronger and heavier. A samurai would have been in heaven here. Swards that cut through time. If only.

If there are nobody and nothing left then who is penning this and for whom? Posterity, does it matter? Why a story for no ears to fall upon, no eyes to skim the page. A story whose telling could have made a difference? For who? Does it matter? I couldn't say, after all, I'm just a drop.

I’m the drop that got away. Slipped through the crack. Flew out into the universe while the planet burned. I was the mystery of life right in front of your face that you failed to see because you wanted to believe something great - a higher power. Always, you looked out there past the present, for something that was surrounding you in the now. The metaphor was not. The sea inside you was actual, not virtual. You called and sought me out as God but I was only ever water. A drop was all I took and a drop is all it will take. Now I’m a space alien, the blue that filled your veins slippery seeping sideways on a blind course to begin again. Blue, I’ll be blue, all kinds of shades of blue - midnight blue, turquoise, indigo, baby blue, azure, aquamarine, sapphire. Water blue.