They are used up and used out
forced to search amongst the stars
while the earth dies alone, defunct.

Interstellar colonists combing
an old night sky for a new home;
they wander, slow, steady across the ages.

They find new worlds, ready, waiting,
wanting, their seeds spread in fertile soils;
their number and dominion swells.

Those others they meet become subsumed,
drowned beneath the weight of humanism;
the fields well tended, the altars stocked.

"Lesser" beings shackled, cattled
until the short sharp shock begins to work;
the ascent of man begins anew.

It has been seen before, (Maori),
but man cannot help himself, (Aborigine),
superiority through stupidity attained, (Arapahoe).

Then, as if to prove they have learnt nothing,
they fly between the gaps
leaving coke cans in the spaces between.

03/15/2006

Posted on 03/15/2006
Copyright © 2025 Darren Swift