No one but Elders remember a time before The End
Even if it’s just been my beginning, my life;
Snuffed skies dominate horizons choked by smoke,
Particulate matter creating brilliant sunsets
Wondering how forests still remain to burn
But still humanity plods along,
So I guess fact is stranger than fiction

We were digging a fire pit when we found it
A small chest for keepsakes, of unknown origin
But of course we found it here
Like ourselves, I guess that’s its story;
The shovel dented the wood, but
The damage was not severe,
Unlike what we’d done to the planet

Inside: a save button from a word processor
But physical and real, one of the Elders
Called it a “floppy disc”… it wasn’t floppy
A photograph of a family, smiling;
Hard to believe the sky really looked like that
Hard to believe people could be so happy
Hard to believe food was so plentiful

We live well enough, but the Elders say
It was as simple as “Going to the grocery store”
Which was some kind of food library,
But you didn’t have to bring anything back
And I wonder what secrets the save button holds
But we don’t have a “floppy disc reader”
And I wonder why these items were buried

Especially the can of beans…
Perhaps they thought ahead? Perhaps they knew
Of the carnage that would be unleashed
Perhaps the happy collection predicted that
Sustenance would be hard to come by
And preserves would be the way forward
But alas, we lack a can opener