Gnomes


Far beneath the crust of Earth,

beyond the mantle, within its bowels,

in burrowed caves and tunnels

dimly lighted by an edible fungus,

a race of Elementals thrives.

Gnomes by name, hunched,

dark diminutive creatures,

their language only grunts

and gestures, their hands

and fingers and teeth so strong

they can dig not only through

hard-packed dirt but solid rock.

They take their mates for life

and realize their desires in

dark side tunnels stripped

of the luminescent fungus.

There they find a sleep

like death until it is time

to start digging again.

As their new tunnels grow,

the old collapse behind.

Gravity claims its own

in broken passages.

There is no going back.

When the last of their kind

vanish from the bowels

of the Earth, when the last

of their tunnels collapse,

there will be nothing

left of them at all.