052919b

Ilium, Thou Art Forgotten and Eternal

Humans passed furiously, as they had lived;

Earth’s biosphere quickly recovered,

one critter or another learning to consume or wear

nearly every thing they’d been pleased to make.

Vertebrates had taken a hit,

that small branch of the Tree,

too close to humanity, perhaps,

but what remained were the great evolvers.

Mice, rats, sparrows, and all the small and generalized

set about filling empty niches;

they were poised to do it.

So, no big-domed giant roaches,

propounding theories about vanished colossi,

piloting sky galleons, or other steampunkery;

instead, convergent evolution built

a new urban roach, when cities rose again,

and again, and again,

for each new thoughtful Twig destroyed itself

as had the primates;

vertebrates decapitated themselves so often,

in terms of intellect,

one might have thought

they had a corner on self-destruction.

The Ant Empire,

when it finally came to pass,

showed otherwise.