We were rot

We were birdsong
We were giant redwood trees
We were bones bleached by desert sun
We were metaphors and similes
We were poems and poets
We were wildfire
We were ebbing in and out
We were waves in the blue atlantic
We were the treefrog’s red eyes glistening
We were crickets in summer night
We were the eye of a storm
We were forgotten
We were ancient monuments
We were children, learning humanity
We were lovers and muses and perfect little gifts
We were crumbling morning mountainsides
We were barnacles on life's back
We were stuck on our shell
We were dying
We were stars exploding
We were ending memories in the night
We were fires taking the forest ablaze and cowering
We were a school of lost silver minnows
We were a cancerous growth 
We were taking
We were red and blue
We were bleeding and bleeding
We were here, we were here, we were here
We were young, marching soldiers 
We were bright truth-seekers
We were weapons
We were kids
We were helpless
We were marching for death
We were marching for life and trust
We were crying, praying, begging to our gods
We were children, goodness, just children
We were men made into monsters
We were drawing blood
We were a danger
We were attack dogs
We were contained, confined, 
We were chained to a stake, beaten 
We were neighbors, traitors
We were the betrayed
We were dead
We were left for dead
We were maggots feasting
We were botflies and bloating and red
We were cold lips and dead eyes and marbled skin
We were bones bleached by the scorching sun
We were sweet decay and spreading  rot
We were flesh peeling from bone
We were crows and carrion
We were red mud
We were liquefying the earth
We were skin slipping in the red-hot heat
We were worms threading through eyeless sockets
We were truths buried in new fertile ground
We were lies free like a bird
We were lies
We were caged birds
We were wings clipped and flightless
We were quaking, cracking, drifting continents
We were lonely and alone and forsaken
We were buried prematurely
We were suffocating
We were screaming into a void
We were screaming, we were screams
We were a void, an abyss, a darkness not unlike death
We were children, friends, siblings, lovers
We were parents, grandparents
We were families
We were burnt and charred
We were tied to a stake, crowned in thorn
We were festering in the harsh desert daylight
We were accused and convicted
We were no judge nor jury
We were alone
We were no longer
We were past, forgotten truths
We were bones bleached in the desert
We were scraps of metal and rust
We were the red rust dirt
We were footprints
We were well-traveled paths
We were warning signs always ignored
We were seeking a rush of thrill
We were adrenaline
We were standing
We were upright and fighting
We were bruised, bloody winners
We were children turned into weapons
We were weapons turned into warriors turned into blood
We were our guts and our past loves
We were our heart stopping
We were alive

We are rot