Song: Canary in the Coal Mine by Riley Ann (Click Here)
Story by Anonymous
A long time ago in
a land far away…
There lived a boy,
Adventures, his way.
One day waking with an urge
To venture, search and play!
He said to his pal dog friend Steve
“Come on along! Let’s go and see!”
So off they went into the forest and trees,
Careful not to fall into a nest of bees.
As pitfalls and traps were a matter of fact
In the daily adventures of boy and Steve.
Now Steve was a good dog.
Loyal and true, Steve looks like whatever a good dog
looks like to you.
Steve lead the pace with a keen nose held high on his face. With a bark and a growl, warning of lark and foul play.
A watchful eye protecting the boy from any sly trick, although Steve does have trouble resisting a thrown stick.
The woods were darkened as Steve let out a bark.
There was danger that made Steve afraid..
With a rattle and call a black bird fell in their way to say
“You cannot go the way you show by the falling of your feet, you must turn around and go away from the sounds I make with my beak!”
At these words the boy turns to where the bird did speak and shreiked “A TALKING BIRD, THAT’S A TREASURE TO KEEP”
So the boy scooped up this feathery freak and stuffed him in his backpack, an act that caused this now distressed bird to screech.
But boy was not interested in the words of a bird, so rather than hear what should be heard he instead began to head directly the direction the bird warned him from, for his protection!
Into a clearing the dog and Boy went.
Sun dappled and grassy with shrubs and bugs abuzz in the air.
What could be wrong with this place? Boy shrugged and kept pace.
Walking forward without a glance or a care, he wasn’t ready for the bones in their lair. A giant tomb of remains long past, on the wind a whisp of pain still staining the air.
Boy was so shocked he tumbled and fell directly into the stairs, down he fell and bumped and banged. Lucky for boy his bag caught a branch from which he hangs.
Boy sees a landscape, under the Earth, of buildings and towers reaching from dirt to dirt.
Relics of a time that no longer exists, people that died years and years before this.
He sees signs that say things he cannot read, they flash colors that he has never seen.
Large shiny structures now covered with dust,
Big metal behemoths falling to rust.
Strange shapes and construction Boy has never known. Steve lets out a growl and helps Boy back upon the ground.
Out bursts the bird from Boy’s bag with a cacophony of sound.
“You’ve been warned you’ve been warned, but instead you put me in your pack! Now you have one more chance, one more chance to go back!”
At this Steve cowered and curled “Hear the sound of my growl, Boy, before this adventure goes sour. This is not a place for us, return home now, within the hour!”
“But Steve”
“But please, this place smells terrible and I don’t want to have to cower in fear, also that bird makes such a racket and I just won’t have it screeching in my ear!
“Okay” Boy conceded “I’ll go back, but one day I will have to see this mysterious place”
“Fine, but when you do,” grumbled Steve “leave me at home, feeling safe!”
So Boy and dog returned at a jog with a shiver up their spine. Boy will return to explore the fossils and ruins of man, but that’s a story for another time.
….
Or maybe Boy will listen to his animal friends and leave the tomb of man to decay where it stands. Would you? You can.
We don’t have to make the forest into cities, we can learn to live sustainably. Take a que from bird and Steve and leave history in the past, let this be the lesson learned for first time and the last.
The End
Make More Everything 