Footnotes

Footnotes Slow down and let your breath savour these few remaining pockets of pristine air before they become too bitter and murky to inhale. Sit here beneath the gentle shade of mature trees before they are gone, felled to make way for paper houses that whither in the wind. Stop for a moment and taste the fresh, calm breezes rolling in from the turquoise seas before their warming waters, whip up gales to rid these shores of life. Rest and embrace familiar dawns… Let the sun kiss your skin's face before its fury scorches the air and turns young fields to hungry deserts. Eat slowly. Fill your stomachs for a rainy day before the lands are parched, and choke with salt water creeping inland. Swallow gingerly these remaining droplets of dew and cleanse your lungs before the rains stop, then return as floods to eat hillsides, houses, and lives and carry them to watery graves. Stand ready to safeguard your children's dreams before they wake up and find the grounds beneath their feet turning to quicksand and life slips away to become just another footnote.