Earth's Reclamation/Next Up

On the battlefield
butterflies carry away the last bloody bullets.
Ravens guide the limp gray souls.
Civilizations crack and split apart, granulate
beneath the verdant march of biological time.
Nature is like that. Man was like that.

On the reclamation sites
butterflies carry in seeds of barley and wheat.
Ravens guide the eager new souls.
Civilizations hatch and crawl forth, mutate
within the whimsical fires of innovation.
Nature is like that. Upright whales are like that.

First published in Star*Line in 2023.