Humans are their own antagonists
More stories from Brynn Schanski
Some flowers that I took a picture of a few years ago
Weeds are always portrayed as the antagonist.
Why is that?
They are only doing what they need to do in order to survive and flourish.
They are seen as evil life needed to be destroyed by sharp tools or poison or flames.
Weeds’ existence is here for the same reason that flowers are—their seeds take root and they shoot up towards the sun—and yet, they are criticized.
Discarded.
Thrown away.
Torn from the earth as though they don’t belong.
Their roots bend and snap as they are torn from their only purpose. They have to start from the beginning. Their hard work is uprooted by a human that decided that their existence inconveniences them.
Why can a human uproot a plant, but a plant can’t uproot a human?
Plants’ worth are judged by selfish beings that have an aptitude for self-destruction.
It is not that humans are omniscient beings who have the decision of who lives and who dies–they are insolent creatures who believe that the universe was created solely for them to determine what is worth existing.
They don’t realize that everything that prospers here prevails for a reason.
Unwanted bushes are engulfed in flames.
The flat, almond-shaped leaves are swallowed by tongues of fire and shrivel into grey ashes.
Broad branches pulverized by man’s creation.
Plants’ worth are judged by selfish beings that have an aptitude for self-destruction. While they tear up plants from the earth and don’t bother to replace them. Humans have found a way to suffocate themselves in a hot ball of greenhouse gasses.
Weeds are always portrayed as the antagonist.
They live on this green and marble planet and have been doing so ever since life creeped out of the ocean and onto the shore.
Plants are what makes our speck in space unique.
Green.
An equivalent of life itself.
Chartreuse in spring. Shamrock in summer.
New beginnings.
Humans are the new ending.
They mince trees into minuscule pieces and leave the roots the rot in the place where their life began.
Humans unearth plants that they find feasible to devour. Being the gluttons that they are, they inhale and erode nutrients down until they’re scarce in the world. They then kill their own brothers and sisters for the resources they have dwindled down. They blame others for the destruction they have brought upon this world.
They are responsible for the wilting flowers.
They are responsible for the withering leaves.
They are responsible for the depletion of Earth’s resources.
Yet, they blame nature for their own destruction.
They blame weeds when flowers aren’t as luminous as they should be.
Weeds are always portrayed as the antagonist.
Brynn is a junior, and she is participating in the class Writing for Publication. She dances for both the FHCVDT and Dance Creations. When she isn't at...
