Nothing but Echoes

Like timeless sentinels

standing, their weathered faces

etched by time

In a desolate expanse 

Air thick with acrid fumes

venom we force in their lungs –

coughing, spluttering, hacking

in a cry we hear not

Branches once wide and fair

suffering in stillness

a voice of deafening agony

only a faint whisper

drowned by the roar of disregard 

Death stained on our bloodless hands

Walking blind into our doom

Soon buried under the weight

of our own ruin