Genocide of Glass

A large pane of glass appeared on the sidewalk today. It was unsullied, sturdy, and perfectly transparent, completely fulfilling every desire one could have of such a large pane of glass, yet it lay flat against the ground in the middle of the sidewalk. None of us knew where it had come from, as there was no construction in the immediate area where the large pane of glass was found, and we were stricken with confusion for a large pane of glass such as this one is seldom met without purpose.

Given the size and placement of the large pane of glass, walking space was limited such that no more than one party at a time could pass by it without having to leap or stride across—two options deemed inadmissible by all who encountered it—so we all made a point of circumnavigating it as we made our morning commutes, careful not to compromise with an ill-placed step such a perfectly good large pane of glass which surely had to have some kind of purpose for being in its current place. Later that evening when we made our inevitable returns from the workday, they were to find the condition of the glass unchanged amidst the clamor of the day.

The following morning, however, we awoke to find the large pane of glass had been broken into shards by some kind of impact dealt at what had once been its center. Now that it was properly ruined and could no longer serve any good purpose to anyone, we saw no need to avoid our ill-placed steps. So day after day we rode over the large pane of glass with our scooters and motorbikes until it was crushed into a thousand jagged orbs, and day after day we trampled it underfoot until it was reduced to a powder invisible to the eye—perfectly transparent.

And day after day the invisible powder was kicked into the air by the bustle of the city and day after day we breathed it in and it entered our lungs where day after day it eviscerated our bronchioles and we coughed up blood and died and cried out to our leaders but to no avail for what good is action when your constituents’ lungs have been shredded and what good is law when your enforcers’ lungs have been shredded and what good is power when your lungs have been shredded?

And the world reaped the benefits of all our folly.

So the birds now sing through shredded trees and the fish now swim through shredded seas and this our earth has been ripped apart and trampled underfoot until nothing but another jagged orb in space remains among infinite jagged orbs where life murdered itself with apathy.