I Understand

I understand what you meant.

I understand what you said.

But what I don't understand is why.  Why did you say what you said?  Why did you feel that what you  had to tell me was what I needed to hear?  What made you think that what you had to say was something I don't already know, or haven't already heard?

I understand you care.

I understand you think you're entitled to say what you want.

But what I don't understand is why you want to say those things to someone you're supposed to love.  Why would you say things that are hurtful? 

I understand that you're lonely.

I understand you have issues, too.

But what I don't understand is why I give and give you friendship, and you give nothing in return.  I was there for you.  You were never there for me. 

I understand that you're busy.

I understand you're stressed.

But what I don't understand is why you think you're the only one.  Stress is not something that's specific to you.  We're all stressed.  We're all busy. 

I understand - and you have no idea.

The Affair

Every day you pass me by. I’m there – day after day, watching you. I see you, but you don’t see me. Or at least, you don’t look at me. I wonder how I can get your attention. Maybe tomorrow I’ll stand a little taller.

~~
You passed me by again today. You still didn’t notice me. I tried standing a little taller, but the rain made it hard. I think today you missed me because you had an umbrella up, and your head down against the rain. You were walking faster than usual. The rain was hard.

~~

Again you didn’t notice me. The sun was shining and I had my face towards it. It was a beautiful warm day. Maybe tomorrow, I’ll try another perfume.

~~

I think my perfume worked today. You slowed when you got near me. I saw you sniffing the air. You almost stopped in front of me. You took a deep breath and slowed – but then your phone rang and your attention was divided.

~~

You stopped today! Clearly my perfume was the key. Today you stopped. You saw me. You smiled and breathed in my perfume. You even came close to me to get the full effect of my perfume. You told me I was beautiful.

~~

You stopped again today and told me I was beautiful. You caressed my face and breathed in my perfume. I shivered. “Tomorrow.” You said.

~~

This morning you picked me up. You breathed in my perfume, and held me so delicately. You caressed my face and told me again how beautiful I was. Then, instead of continuing on to work, you turned away and told me you could take the day off. You brought me home and to the bedroom. I shivered with anticipation.
“Darling,” you said. “I saw this beautiful rose, and something made me pick it and bring it home to you. I love you.” Then you handed me to your beautiful wife. 

Water

It's all around me. I can hear it. There is no hiding from it. It rises and falls and rises and falls. But each time it rises, and each time it falls, it stays just a little higher than it did before. Before too long, it will engulf this tiny island. Before too long, any trace of this island will disappear.

We should have listened to our forefathers. We should have listened when they told us our consumerist ways would eventually destroy us and our planet. And now I am the only one left to see what has become of us.

Sure. The rich and powerful and lucky made it off this planet and are orbiting in luxury starships. Hoping for a day when the waters recede and they can come back and destroy what's left. Or go in search of other planets to inhabit and likely destroy. They won't have learned to curb their habits. But the rest of us?  The working stiffs who rarely had two dimes to rub together. Who couldn't afford to grease the palm of some bureaucrat to get a spot on one of those "star liners"? We were left behind to witness the final destruction of the chunk of rock we called home for tens of thousands of years.

Reduce, reuse, recycle. What a joke. All that did was slow down the inevitable. It still caused ozone-destroying gasses when the recycling factories went to work. Before all the ice melted and the waters rose, the gasses caused temperature increases. Summer lasted 365 days a year (366 in a leap year). It was such fun to go to the beach in February. For the first couple of years. Then reality set in. Food shortages became the norm. Prices rose. Somehow the rich kept getting richer, but the poor - we got poorer. Farms were all bought up and turned into factory farms and corporate farms. Farmers couldn't afford to keep running their farms without the corporate payouts.

Once the food supply started getting more and more scarce, rationing became the norm. After that, synthesizing became how we ate. There was very little food in our food. It was synthesized to look like something, but was little more than some vitamins and nutrients mixed together with something to hold them together and called "chicken-like" or "beef-like". Especially after all the animals died. It wasn't uncommon after the last cow died, to find domestic animals on restaurant menus. You learned quickly not to think of your old dog Sparky when you were at the diner eating "meat-like loaf".

And now, here I am, writing what will likely be my last words. The water has gotten even higher now. It's around my knees. I can't get to any higher ground. There is no higher ground. I'm at the top of the tallest building. I'm writing this and putting it in a plastic zipper bag in the hopes that someone someday will find it. Maybe they'll learn from our mistakes and treat this planet better than we did.

For now, I can only hope that if the starships are heading to the planet our researchers studied when it became apparent we would need to leave our home, they treat the new world with more respect than they did this one.

That is my hope for this new planet. That is my hope for Earth.