Just like the dinosaurs

Not if but when
We are extinct
How will we be remembered
By those that come after
By those that never knew us?

Will we be icing pictures on party cakes
Like the dinosaurs?
Will we feature in blockbuster movies?
'Oh those crazy humans
Didn't they do anything
But kill and maim and torture all the time?'

Will there be whole academic departments
Of newer cleverer beings
Studying our bones and tracks
And mysterious ways?
'They did what?
They had how many pairs of shoes?'
Will they unearth
Long-forgotten episodes of the 'Love Boat'?
'Ah, they lived on water'
Or discover crushed-up carrier bags and crisp packets
A whole new layer of the earth's crust?
'You see, the convenience era, very significant'
Will they perhaps look at a wristwatch
A pot noodle and a Marilyn Manson CD
And wonder what on earth we got up to
Once we stopped hunting and gathering
And all that old-age stuff?

Whatever they suggest
They will never imagine
Us as we really were
The highs, the lows
The what was hard and what was really
Not
We will be unknown and unknowable
Largely forgotten temporary inhabitants
We are not so special
Look carefully, watch
See us as we disappear

© Rachel Fox 2006