Earthsick
Steam danced away from her untouched tea,
As she sat guarded and ready to flee.
I flashed her a warm and welcoming smile
And took a slow sip of my own steaming drink.
For I have been doing this quite a while,
And knew that she needed a moment to think.
"The misters," she finally managed to say,
Her eyes grew unfocused, and she glanced away.
Then her face creased with uneasy pain,
As she fought the inner urge to look strong.
"They felt too much and too little of rain...
And that is when things began to go wrong.
The air and the water soon tasted sour.
I lost complete track of the day and the hour.
My sleep became fleeting, my appetite gone.
I missed the comfortable weight of the sky.
From there, I became wholly withdrawn,
And waited for life to pass me by."
Here, she paused to gauge my reaction,
Wresting control of our interaction.
"Earthsick," I said. "I know it well..."
She raised her hand to stop my sentence
For Earthsickness was a personal hell
That haunted all of Earth's descendants.
----
For five hundred years, we spread to the stars,
Claiming each place that we landed as ours.
We chased our dreams on solar winds
And forged beginnings on unknown ground.
Our Earth still suffered from our sins,
But we thought forgiveness could be found.
Humanity's golden age, it was proclaimed
Our expansion grew unchecked and untamed.
Those who left Earth rarely returned
For the future called us upward, not back down.
The rest of us watched as the Earth burned,
As oceans boiled and cities drowned.
The last to leave were the first to mourn,
Our spirits were broken, our souls were worn.
For now, we were a species unmoored.
No longer belonging to any one place.
We had sowed our own sorry reward:
To forever wander the vastness of space.
-----
"It will pass," she swore but with little conviction,
For she knew the truth of her affliction.
"It will," I affirmed with a smile and shrug,
"But we must address your deep desolation."
With that, I stood and put down my mug,
"Come, I'll give you a tour of the station."
"You'll find your room just down the hall,
Though we make them intentionally small.
It encourages you to explore the facility,
Besides, you'll like the gardens more.
They're perfect for quiet and tranquility.
But you'll have to tell me..." I opened the door.
The sunlight was blinding but pleasantly warm
With the petrichor smell of a gathering storm.
"What..." her words faltered as she took in the scene.
"Where... how..." her words continued to tumble
As they were caught by the vast expanses of green.
Finally, her frightened facade began to crumble.
"Welcome to the New Earth Preserve.
A place humanity does not deserve,
Where we might forget the mistakes of our past
Where we might visit a future that we destroyed.
Where we might find peace at long last.
And call humanity home from the void."
Her tears became an endless stream,
Believing this must be a dream,
Until the storm broke overhead,
Rain caressing our upturned faces
I watched her soul expand and spread
As she found where her place was.
"This station is now your home and duty
Together, we must protect its beauty.
This is a sanctuary for souls adrift
Earthsick minds and all who ache
Those who cherish this invaluable gift
And who understand all that's at stake.
Her laugh cracked like roiling thunder
And began to dance with freedom and wonder.
NYC Midnight 2023 Rhyming Story
Round 1 Prompts: Science Fiction | Self-Indulgent | Discouraged
Result: 2nd Place
