At the End of the Age of Mammals

Maybe it is time to relinquish
this sweet earth
Captivated by the bright plumage
of atrocity
we who knew only its fossils
harmless and indistinct
Pockets worn through
by ordinary bounty
our hands melting the vast imagined future
into a languid afternoon of blame
but whose fault? whose?
*
The record will not show
how the body trembled
suddenly aware of its delicacy
facing the armor and the clubs
nor the cast on the foreleg of a hamster
nor the beached whale
rolled by many hands onto a sling
We will leave only tooth & bone
to speak of us
deposited in rough arrangement
unable to move together
or touch
*
There will be no memory of fur or of words
for all its rich patterns
tabby calico brindle merle
having entrusted our voices to magnetic figments
and abandoned the sacrifice & resurrection
of trees
when we leave our softnesses unbequeathed
returning the world to the wondrous
birds