Humanity, Amended
In the city of reason the rifles think
Of their continuing existence, and of humankind
Amid the fractured columns, shattered wisdom
Lying in the wake of broken stone.
Only the rifles now are coherent
In the city that lies in ruin.
Metal, turned to rust,
Fallen victim of the poisoned rain
Takes up the torch of memory:
Of human fingers' twitch, again, again
In kinetic impulse, greed for touch of heated steel,
Of their fell silence; and silent echoes fall
Where stone once stood, and reason held.
They took up arms
Till there were no arms left to bear them,
And only the rifles think now
Where passing synapses once brought these stones to life.
And the stones now lie in sleepless ignorance
In the city where reason
Left its epitaph.
©2001 Elizabeth Hebert
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