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    The last breath of the Earth

Tears of a woman, tears of a mother, tears of a daughter. Tears from the sky, white, cold and light. My cry unites to the one of the earth, she's dying and I with her. I know we will soon breathe our last, but time seems to have stopped. I gaze at the landscape around me, covered by a white blanket of snow, as to conceal the wounds that tear her bowels, black, deep, cruel. I remember when I was a child, I ran through these meadows, there was the snow too, I smiled happily, and the trees, the mountains, everything around me, joined my smile. At that time I didn't know, I couldn't imagine it, but she did, she knew. In her long life she had seen many things, she had seen the world change, wars and peace, defeats and victories, love and hate, those numerous and tiny lives follow one another continuously. She took great care of everybody as a loving mother, a discreet, delicate love. A light breeze caressing your face, the scent of the rain, the soft grass under your feet. I close my eyes and for a moment I forget the biting cold, I've lost the sensibility of my legs and I can't move. The relief lasts an instant, the pain gets more intense, mine, hers. A few steps from me lies my son, lifeless. Only a thin rosy trail unites us. Snow has covered the blood, a last and never requested sacrifice. Perhaps it could have been avoided, I struggled tirelessly and like me many others, mothers, fathers, old and young people. But that dark evil was strong, arrogant and in the meantime so small that the wings of a butterfly could have erased it for ever. I don't know what the real name of that evil is, everybody called it differently, and I, I don't remember anymore. She doesn't remember anymore either. She has forgiven, as only a mother can do, and while her breath fades the white shroud that wraps us shines silvery under the light of a fleeting moon. The last gift, and my eyes close to never open again.

 

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Written by Marta, 05th March 2006

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