by David Bolton.
Call me Martin. My watch has come to an end, time to return to the home galaxy. Shame, really. You came so far in such a brief span. Imagine, only 12,000 years separating the beginning of agriculture from the splitting of the atom. I was sent here because your kind had so much potential. Death and rebirth. Either you learn your lessons in this life or you learn them in the next. In a million years or so, you could have achieved immortality. Looks like it’s not meant to be.
Consider your cousin Neanderthals… rather liked those plant gatherers, handsome creatures flourishing in small groups. Bigger and stronger than their humanoid successor, they lacked one cognitive quality: language. Limited to gestures and grunts, they were no match for the invaders. Across the Balkans Cro-Magnon bands roamed. The Neanderthals didn’t have a chance against this fluent tribe. Six human species down to one, homo sapiens.
Wherever Sapiens roamed this earth, mass deaths would follow, from mammoths to wombats to other humans. One hundred thousand years ago, Sapiens rose to the top of the food chain with the discovery of fire. The world hasn’t been the same since. Be fruitful and multiply. Eight billion and counting. A hard rain is going to fall.
Such a pity.
Through the millennia, now and then a highly evolved prophet would appear, like the Nazarethian, who preached a language of love, the key to immortality; all too often that message was twisted into hate. Perhaps just a matter of time before the nukes strike. Add to that climate change. Don’t look up. I am sad to see holes in the ozone, atmosphere dissipating, ultimately extinguishing life on Earth. Your state is not unique. Billions of years ago on Mars, a clever civilization succumbed to the seven deadly sins and left the planet bereft of life. Across the universe, this parable between love and hate plays out. Time is but an illusion. Farewell, humans. As for one last warning, I leave you with this bit of wisdom:
Revenge of the Cells
In the beginning Mother Earth brought forth life.
From carbon a single genetic code emerged
Single cells replicated and the dance began.
A half billion years later,
This old soul watches this world die
Can do nothing to halt this destiny.
War, famine, greed, the usual suspects,
Homo sapiens a blip in the universe
A parasite to life as we know it.
Time for a scorching, a cleansing, might life go on?
Mother Earth will have a say
Viruses are rising from melting tundra and clearcut jungle.
Call it revenge of the cells
Did you know trees can talk?
The world is not as you see it.
