Glistening stones

A red band gleamed through the ring of fog
And announced another day with its dawn
Another starry night died away
The birds began to sing their song to embrace the new day
   And the people awoke from a peaceful sleep
   And started their day pleased and in harmony
   And they tilled the fields and they sowed and cropped
   And they baked the bread and shared what they got

Early a young man went to the fields
To harvest the ripe potatoes and beets
He crooned a song to himself
While he dug the vegetables out of the earth
   Suddenly he saw a blue light in the ground
   A glistering stone as big as a fist he found
   And this stone shone brighter than everything
   The young man had ever seen

And he carried his treasure homeward
And he proudly presented it to everyone
And the people saw this glistering stone
And everyone wanted it for his own
   And they began to beg and to bargain
   But the young man didn’t want to give his treasure away
   And jealousy crept into the hearts
   Of the people and their fellowship fell apart

"Where you find one there must be more"
So, the people set out to search for these glistening stones
And some of those stones were really found
But most of the searching men missed out
   The reports of the stones spread in no time
   The greed for the stones spread like wildfire
   And all over the island people rifled the ground
   In hope to find some of these fabled stones
   And they dug deeper and deeper into the ground
   Searching for more of these glistering stones
   And they roused the beast that had been sleeping for yonks
   In the caves deep beneath the ground

And the beast awoke from his deep, deep sleep
And he got a really tremendous spleen
The whole island quivered by his roar
His torrid breath let the mountains explode
He spat fire and ash into the sky
And the ash beclouded the sunlight
And toxic ash and fire rained down
Onto lakes and rivers and onto the ground
And the beast spat torrid, molten stones
That outpoured all over the ground
An ocean of fire burned up the whole land
Flattened everything on its path
Destroyed the forests, the fields and the homesteads
Destroyed all living on the island

In panic fear and in stampede
The people ran for their lives and tried to reach the beach
They hurled themselves into the sea
To escape this inferno, the air was filled with death and screams
   Just a few of them snatched a place aboard
   On one of the few fishing boats
   And these boats were much too small
   For these crowds

Eleven boats set sail
But just five of them reached the ring of haze
Seventy-eight people on the boats
Clustered together while they immerged into the fog
   Behind them their exploding home
   And the screams of those, who drowned
   And while the screams fell silent gradually
   The survivors sailed into insecurity

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