The Grand Illusion

Where is the knowledge and beauty
lost in The Extinction?
Where is lost civilization?
We are the survivors
alone together
in a garden of solace.

We walked the desert in our land.
We saw shards and wrecks
scattered in the sand.

We are on the edge
of the vast desert
of the tortured planet.
As stragglers together,
we seek communion.

Could we be on an island of the stone gods –
an intellectual curiosity centuries hence?

Satellite communication pervades.
Attached to our solar-powered smartphones
we draw on all the prior world’s
libraries and images and songs in the Clouds.

We lie in the grass
and stare at the stars.
They are the same.

Chirping cries can be heard but
from monkeys, not children.
The years pass and the monkeys and stars remain.

Can our creations be saved from becoming dust?
Can there be a resurrection from the scrapyards of rust?

This is the way civilization renews:
By visionary youth leading the way.
Then we won’t need to colonize space -
There will be magic here for the human race.