In the Next Life, Canto I, stanzas 159-166

If things go well (and let’s assume they will),
they’ll do their part to multiply the race.
Their metal homes will soon begin to fill.
Before they know it, they’ll run out of space.

But you and I aren’t worried on their part
(though of the details we might have some doubt),
for we know what the plan’s been from the start.
We know what Project SIRE is all about.

If you and I could live to see the day
that this will happen, knowing nothing new—
if you and I could be there, we would say
“I know why they are doing what they do.

“I know why they are growing what they grow,
though they don’t know who’s eating all of it.
I know they show each other what to sow
with no connection to their benefit.

“I know why they retrieve what they retrieve,
especially computers and the like.
They know what to pick up and what to leave.
They don’t know, though, what happens down the pike.

“I know why they reside where they reside
beside an airport full of DC-9’s.
I know why they decide what they decide.
Inside and out, they’re following the signs.

“Their actions are no mystery to me,
determined as they were, so far away.
Although they reason independently,
their goals are those of someone who’s not they.

“They come together at an empty shell;
they hitch it to themselves, and I know why.
I read about it ere the comet fell.”
We’d say that if we saw that, you and I.

©2010 Louis A. Merrimac