Losing Eden

Photo by Rohan Reddy on Unsplash

All the animals in the world were fleeing.

I saw them, running jumping flying scrambling soaring.

Some must have been swimming through the air, since there was no water to be seen.

All the creatures of the world were heading in the same direction, from left to right 

In my mind’s eye, through what looked to be a man-made channel, or empty riverbed

lined with concrete. Except for them there was no sign of life.

They were jumbled together, lions and lambs, tigers, elephants, gazelles, grizzlies.

How many others, or what kind, I couldn’t tell.

Their limbs were working, their feet and hooves moving, their heads stretched forward

like a race horse on the track.

Were they racing for survival, away from humankind and all its cruelties,

Or merely accepting the inevitable and heading toward extinction?

My dream gave no clue, no markers or explanations.

The only certain thing is

they were running from us.