The Baobab Seed

“Beware the baobabs,” the little prince says.

Yes, I say, beware of the baobabs. Because once a baobab has taken root it will never cease to grow. It will grow and grow and grow. It will take root in the heart of the earth and its roots will grow. They will grow as nothing before and break up the foundations.

I can feel it now. Something has been planted in the center of the earth. A single seed. A seed that will produce thirty, sixty, or a hundred times that which was sown. It stretches in the iron core. It  pushes against the surrounding cage and stretches. It pushes against that which confines it, like a moose calf ready to be birthed.

The seed grows. I feel it pushing against my roots. Even now it is here.

I see the change. I have felt it in the soil for centuries, but this baobab grows slowly. One day it will shatter the earth. One day it will push away my soil and send me into outer space. I will dance with the stars and sing to the moon and I will look down on the baobab. It will take its place in the sky. It will be the new heaven and new earth. It will have a single king who reigns. It will have the order we were made to live in. No longer will there be hunger or cold. No longer will there be weeping and pain. No longer will there be slavery and oppression. It will be well. It will be well with the souls who live there, well for the souls who find themselves still on the earth when the baobab erupts. It will be well.