mry writes

*a musing*

Heretofore: *Up to this time; hitherto; before; in time past.*

Heretofore hunters hunted; gatherers gathered; bearers bore. A black ooze oozed, and burned.

Hunters declined to hunt; gatherers set down their baskets; bearers carried no more burdens.

The lands provided; the lands provided; the lands died. Briefly, life flourished. Life, not satisfied, destroyed. Destroyed, life believed everything, and nothing. Destroyers rose.

Life lost the means to hunt, to gather, to bear. To fight for life, to grow for life. Life forsook meaning; sought mindlessness. Destroyers rose, life sank.

Hereafter: *In times to come; in some future time or state.*

Hereafter barons, no longer bearers, will rule; thinking, lost, will wither; lands will burn. Barons will hunker in bunkers; the bunkerless will struggle.

In times to come beyond times to come, barons, unable to continue baroning, will emerge and, being useless, will starve.

In times beyond, life will crawl back onto the lands and will marvel at unknowable relics and ruins. Bones of barons will become clubs, needles, amulets.

Stars will come within reach, will fly out of reach. Barons will again rule, hunker, starve. The wheels will turn.