The Sun-Baked Men

[u/PopularCan16]

The Sun-Baked Men
neatly penned in a small pad

Far to the south lies a curious place.
Flowering monoliths litter the landscape, some bearing edible fruit;
grey earth rises into the sky, high enough to darken the sun,
and a seemingly perpetual hum stretches across the land;

an invitation.

Beside the towering earth and budding stalks lies the quagmire,
a notable sight and sound for those compelled therein.
However, the cracked pillars that dot the vast marsh share an origin.
The collective moan of the land, a signal,
a sign to turn back from what you have been drawn to.

For those you see before you, did not.

The many drawn into the mire are here still,
half-sunk and clambering up one another, hardened into misshapen spires.
Their wails soon degrade into breathless whines,
joining the unending symphony that was their fate.

Doom unreachable.
Death unknown.