It started when we lost our Drums

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It started when we lost our Drums

we were lazy one month and didn't bother with them.

the spirits got angry and took them away.

we were silenced except for our tongues and our brains.

without the drums we forgot how to listen.

our hearts and our minds grew crusty with lack of use.

our power declined.

we lost our abililty to communicate.

our bodies forgot they had spirits.

our spirits forgot they had bodies.

we got lost and started believing we were machines, so we built other machines to pass the time.

we became surrounded by machines and thought they were our brothers.

we had no sisters, but we didn't know it mattered.

since we thought the machines were our brothers, we let them advise us.

we thought they knew more than we did.

we did everything they told us.

we forgot how to breathe.

we had to struggle to be happy and we were confused about love.

we tried to kill or stifle anyone who didn't act like a machine.

we treated our bodies like machines and they began to break.

we tried using tools to repair them, but it didn't work.

we grew old, but we didn't die.

we just divided and multiplied until we filled up the whole planet.

we began to suffocate.

Then the spirits took pity and returned the drums.

At first, we thought they were toys.

we used them with our sound machines.

but gradually, their power seeped into the backs of our memories.

one by one we learned again how to use the drums.

we returned to our circles.

we resumed the beating.

the rhythms began intertwining again.

slowly we remembered how to listen.

our hearts limbered up and began loving of their own accord without the brain to organize and confuse.

the brains took a much needed rest.

the machines fell into a cold, brittle sleep.

our spirits began to touch each other again.

we found the sisters again and our bodies woke up and remembered how to die.

with the return of death our powers came back in full.

we used our tears and the blood of the sisters to heal the damage we had done when we thought we were machines.

the damage was immense and almost irreversible.

but the spirits returned with the drums just in time.

~the Northern People~