Bestiary for the End Times

it’s a sad story
a story of sadness and of grief
 
yes but why so sad
 
sad because this is the end
the end of so many creatures
 
but creatures always expire
always die       time moves on
 
yes but not like this
 
what is like this?
 
creatures dying out 1000 times faster
than they should
 
numbers don’t impress me
and anyway what is should
 
there is a great vanishing
 
a great turning
 
nothing great about it
 
the grief of it impossible to bear
let alone to recognize to feel
 
so is it a feeling
this great vanishing
 
not a feeling but a great wave of grief
an echo of the world’s grief
in the hollow tiny thrumming grottos of the heart
in the tiny caves where the burnt moon and the creatures always lived
 
let the story be told by the blood, by the vanishing
let the gravity open the chambers of the heart
let the grief blossom a fountain a blossoming fountain
a blossoming blossoming blossoming fountain