The Lilac Children

Location

32818
United States
28° 34' 49.08" N, 81° 28' 58.152" W

It’s a barren cold winter
Frozen and cracked across the surface
Our breath stops in the air above us
Our breath leaves us and huddles together in frigid air

We are frozen in this ice-world
Frozen mid-step, mid-breath
Our hearts explode into pieces
Blood red shards against the pale white snow

A memory comes to me
I walked in the forest one day
It was spring and all bloomed
The sun was warm and loving
Everything flourished and grew in its care
I saw a sprig of lilacs and so marveled at their beauty
That I picked them from their warm earth
I took them to my home and pressed them in a book
I later thought that perhaps that was heartless of me
For the lilacs would no longer be beautiful torn from Earth’s bosom
I regretted plucking the lilacs and looked at them no more

And now, I am broken in this cold and horrible winter
The frozen moment has passed and we collapse
Blood covers the snow in shards
Stirred with the tears of millions mourning

Our breath returns to us in pained, sobbing gasps
Wracked with the pressing weight of frozen grief
The hole where our hearts were gushes more blood still
Turning the land a bright and horrible red

As I lay with the others in the scarlet snow
Screaming and gasping in that horrible snow
I remember that spring day
Warm with the love and care of the sun
Where one could lie down and sleep, safe
A painful memory in the midst of a restless time
I crawl to my room and took up the frail lilacs
Still fragrant in their pale, corpse-like state
At least, perhaps, I had something to offer
Something they could understand
Dead flowers to soothe the dead flowers of humanity
To comfort our little lilac children’s souls

In time, the snow will turn over
All blood drip away and be forgotten
But for now, we are barren earth
Robbed of our precious flowers

They were torn from us
And will be pressed into wooden books
Placed in stone shelves to be ashamed of and forgotten
With only the lilacs to remember and understand

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