weed

This story begins some
forty thousand years ago
A timely, tragic tale
of wonderment and woe

Excavating the extinction trail
of the bones found in rocks
shows global warming's just the nail
sealing up life's death box

We started hunting
The megafauna soon gone
No more saber-tooth, moa
or mammoth mastadon

Whales, gorillas, rhinos
did their best to hold on
Pachyderms and hippos
going, going, gone

We are the weed
See how we breed
Slash and burn greed
Apocalypse seed

Tromping boots trail stowaways
to each corner of the globe
Behold bat and frog genocides
from an invasive microbe

And what about the death
of all the world's coral?
Take peek in the mirror
if you would seek a moral

But will the plants survive?
It's not just the truffula tree
Shall simmering segmentation
sever all the green we see?

...except for one weed
Apocalypse seed
Feel how we breed
slash and burn greed

Where then the terminus
of this treachery and travail?
Will rats or ruminococcus
be the only ones to prevail?
Is it too late to extricate
our hands from the third rail?
Or will a tailless primate
be the end of life's tale?