You Did This.

• Poppy Davis, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2020

The dark night sky is abruptly taken over by some unseen painter, brushing long strokes of ashy pink over the dawning world. Birds raise their heads to the greyness and sing melancholy songs for all they have lost. The sky, usually a vibrant orange-pink-blue, is now grey. The sky is meant to be something to care for, love and respect. It gives us the sun's heat, the cloud's water. Now it chokes us. Smoke fills the air, fills the lungs, fills the only world we can see. Fires rage just a short distance away, licking up any material- trees, houses, lives- that stand in its way.
You could have stopped this.
You could of saved us.
You destroyed the land. You cut back the only things that could protect it.
It's time to make a difference.
Your thoughts and prayers aren't enough.
You are the only ones who could save this land, and you let it burn.
Why?