Let It Go

Don't be angry.
There was a time when anger walked the Earth,
Red and glowing, limbs like grasping tendrils,
Pulsing with magic, a creature older than us.
So we had to have it.

We took it.
And sold it.

Humans have always been simple like that.
Rumour has it, the creatures were many and varied,
All of them far beyond our comprehension.

Guilt, sadness, fear and anger,
Precious, beautiful joy,
And many we know no more.
Their colours and shapes fascinated us,
Their magic had to be harnessed, of course...
In the time before our history began,
Humans' greatest possesions were these,
Creatures, caught and traded.
It was bad enough.

If only our ancestors had let them live,
But they craved to understand,
To harness not only the creatures,
But their very magic.

So they picked them apart,
Studied them outside and inside,
Killing them to understand their parts.

The creatures could not escape,
Not completely.
Not until they were desperate enough to leave this realm.
Unable to break free on Earth,
They hid behind a veil that's not for us to lift.
Some say they're anchored to our very souls,
It's the only way they can exist now.
Forever exiled from their home,
Tethered to the humans that enslaved them.
Still we hold them greedily,
pulling them close unknowingly.

We had no right, it's their hurt we feel,
and use like it's a part of us.

Let them be now, don't be angry.

Notes ▼

Written for "The Writer's Cramp" 
Lines:40
Freeform
Prompt: "Write a story or poem about a world where emotions are a tangible commodity, and people have the ability to buy and sell them.

Use FOLKLORE as one of your genres. "