“Man and the Earth” by Siviano Stalon Fortes

Translated by Kent Larsen. For the original Portuguese, click here. 

Centuries of progression but also of regression; centuries painted with blood. Red. Still, everyone kept a cool head…

Decades arose and gained the crown, and mankind–that culprit–won renown for stomping on all that lets life grow and things forgotten long ago.

What have we done? Ambition sucked up the sap of existence, sniffed out a defect and fed it a ton, sold its pearls without resistance.

Now cries echo from down in the deep (ears claim not to hear them at all) but in their lament, earth’s beauties weep a warning: without changes, all will fall.