An Undefined Species

They never knew there was a palace underneath them

Where the lines of the earth and the afterlife are blurred.


They just assumed we melted through the crust and

reconstituted what was left for them to harvest.


Being inquisitive is an inherited trait and

the remains of twenty billion souls were most interesting.


The marrow had been preserved nicely,

jumping from six feet to one

tucked inside their millenial packaging.


If they had resembled us

they may not have overlooked our search for divinity.

But sustenance was not what it used to be.


They were beginning to understand what had come before them.

Scorched earth and deserts were what they inherited.

And the salted seas were no longer toxic to an endless thirst.


We had given them enough,

laying waste to steel skies

and defiled air.


There was nothing left that was unwanted.

They would lap up what we had left behind,

each other.


What would become of them when the middle

of our bones were hollow

was of no consequence,


Because they never expected to defy nature,

just our delusions of eternity.