There will come a time
Where trees are reduced to dust
and the leaves fall to ashes
And smoke remains to swallow the sun
And choke the brethren of the wishy washy zephyrs
And kidnaps the children and the dreams that paint the sunset
And the hue from the world is drained
And when they steal the hope from the humans that once looked up at the sky
Following the constellations on an unsure escape from enslavers
(When they followed the Drinking Gourd, blindly)
And only rock remains
And only rock remains
In the big, vast world
Robbing us of the punch of summer days and the twinkles of fireflies
Of the jump of the chlorine with a splash
Bubblegum (pop pop pop) and the smell of your over air-conditioned dormitory
Where you learned yourself and was not afraid
That you were fire and innovative; and a potter of the clay of change
( and the leader of the underdogs)
And Sameness will reign on her Vineyard-Vine throne
Holding a Starbucks to her lips
Only rock remains
And fear wins against courage
(And the lion backed down on his fight versus the shadow, the dog retiring from chasing his tail)
And even the fossils of our ancestors are smashed to smithereens
( and their imprint, scar, mistake disappears along with the history of the world
Goodbye Adam, Eve. Rest in peace.)
And only rock remains
And only rock remains
And
Only
Rock
Remains.

But.
(The world is stubborn. She is the evil author, leaving her characters paused in a middle of their climax, their last hurrah. But. She hates the period. She hates finish, she enjoys continuation.
Even the master puppeteer has fun playing with their subjects.
And even if the world plucked the best people from our grasp like the prettiest flowers in the garden. She could not stand to see Pandora's legacy be in vain, and to destroy her favorite playthings. So she sighed. She could not let the story end...)

There will always be the Lichen, who appears
And recreates oxygen
Until the earth cradles color in her hands
And the leaves of new beginnings
(Of hope, and unfettered star that fills the sky with tremors  of curiosity)
And paints the world with the Lichen
For the Lichen
Is not afraid to start over
And she will always be there
When only rock remains.
And very soon
Very Soon-
A single flower will be born
Of the shadow and fear
And a single star will shine
Among darkness;
And that is what life means
To begin (again) is to find the light at the end of the hallway
(Fire in the smoke
The red in gray
Light in the dark)

Because of the Lichen
That grew
When only rock remained.

With a rejuvenating breath of oxygen
And an exhale that echoed the triumph of a new daybreak
Once more.

And hope was come.
(She never really left.)