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The Planet Will Be Fine without Us


by Gary Hardaway


It circled the sun four plus billion times
before we happened and will circle at least
four more billion times after we destroy ourselves
and a few thousand species of our closest relatives.

The planet will be fine without us as it was
once Ordovician and Silurian events
emptied the seas.

The planet will be fine without us as it was
after the Devonian catastrophe ended
three quarters of species, land and sea.

The planet will be fine without us as it was
when the Permian extinction made the goo
that made the Rockefellers wealthy.

The planet will be fine without us as it was
after the Triassic and Jurassic made the death that made the coal
that gave us the power of our own gradual death.

The planet will be fine without us as it was
when the dinosaurs were snuffed out by shock and awe
of that terrible asteroid and the dark sky after.

The planet will be fine without us after wealth,
torn from under earth, burns and stokes the final fire
that will extinguish all we know and all we knew

and the planet- fine without us—
sprinkles sediment over our remains
to entomb all we were for the brief, frantic, time we were.
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