Witnessed

Eons ago they walked that place
Inheritors of an ancient trust
They trod the paths of destiny
Surrounded by benevolent grace

That place provided all their needs
They grew in number and in kind
Their history written in the dust
Of trails forged by their bloody deeds

Blinded by the quest for more
Of everything that they did have
An avaricious grasping breed
Contemptuous of their written law

Scorning honest work for play
Desirous of a life of ease
They purged the living memory free
Of mighty works from an earlier day

Burning for coal and gas and oil
To feed their gluttony for life
They stripped that place of all its worth
And poisoned water, air and soil

So now they are no longer there
On that ravaged and deserted orb
They fanned the flames of their own fire
And left their ashes in the air

They were the keepers of the land
But kept it not: destroyed it all
Disrupting nature’s delicate plan
A vicious and marauding band

Life forms of a different kind
We kept our vigil through all time
Watching here from outer space
The mess left there by humankind

And wondered if that once great place
Would have suffered such a shocking end
If by some strange twist of cosmic fate
It had been settled by a gentler race

Zannie